


Dragonhearted

by klepto_maniac0



Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Gen, Lighthearted, Medieval Fantasy, Other, Violence in Later Chapters, knights and dragons and such, slightly cracky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-09-20 08:50:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 73,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9483635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klepto_maniac0/pseuds/klepto_maniac0
Summary: COMPLETEDIt's time for squire Quistis Trepe to become a knight by vanquishing a dragon! Somehow...





	1. Damsel in Battle Dress

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aurenare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurenare/gifts), [sissyhiyah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sissyhiyah/gifts).



> Inspired by sissyHIYAH's "Huzzah!" and refined by Aurenare's thoughtful and enthusiastic beta-ing.
> 
> As much as I love writing really long megafics, they're intimidating for people to jump into and I run the risk of forgetting what the characters originally started off as. So it's not unusual for me to publish multiple stories with the same characters but in different settings, all at the same time. Whee!

The dragon had been spotted in the east, toward some hills that were rocky enough for people who didn't know better to call them 'mountains'. Quistis left her chocobos at the village's tiny inn and hoped they would still be there when she got back, otherwise she was going to have to carry the dragon's head all the way back to the Order to prove she'd slain the thing and was worthy of knighthood. Vanquishing some sort of villainous thing was the final requirement in order to become a Holy Knight of the Order of Eden and at eighteen, Quistis was more than ready. She would have been ready at fifteen, except her knight-master was... Well... Frankly speaking, Sir Loire was a bit lazy and hadn't bothered to scout any suitable creatures for his bright young squire to skewer. After waiting very patiently for several years, Quistis had taken it on herself to find a skill-appropriate target, forge Sir Loire's signature on the necessary papers (which was sadly not unusual; Sir Loire hated paperwork and had actually taught Quistis how to sign his name specifically to avoid tedious things), and then equip herself and go off. Now to his credit, Sir Loire had made sure that she'd received all the training necessary to actually dispose of a dragon, so Quistis was sure she could do this without getting maimed or killed. Pretty sure. The reports of the dragon had it small, probably about three times the size of a chocobo instead of ten, but a small dragon was a dragon nevertheless.

 

After interviewing the villagers for all the details she could get, Quistis set off for the hills in the east long before the sun was due to rise and headed for a cave where several terrified shepherds had sworn they'd seen the creature going in and out of. Since this was a scouting foray, Quistis wore a tunic stained in shifting shades of brown, green, and gray made to blend into the ground and further wrapped her face up in a scarf made of the same material; no sense in letting the sunlight off her hair alert the dragon to her presence. Some of the Order's other female squires cut their hair short but to Quistis it seemed like keeping it short was more work than it was worth, so her hair was down to the middle of her back and twisted up out of her way when she was in the field. When she was done, all that could be seen of her were her eyes and that suited her just fine. Quistis wanted to get as close to the cave as possible to confirm that the dragon was actually there, and once she had done that, she could plan her assault. Years of being squire to an extremely haphazard knight had taught her the value of very careful planning, since relying on Sir Loire to do much of anything was like counting on the sun to set in the west. Not for the first time Quistis wondered if he'd noticed she was gone, or if he'd at least found the note she'd put on top of his journal, under his favorite pen. In the event she died, it would be the least Sir Loire could do to bury her body.

 

_(She hadn't always been so sour on her knight-master. As a child of ten, she'd thought him quite spectacular but then again, he'd been fresh off a beast-killing and all agleam in armor that was beautifully shiny, and Quistis had oh-so-badly wanted to get away from her family of twelve children and totally exhausted parents. Becoming a knight had seemed like a much better option, until she'd realized that Sir Loire's armor gleamed because he tended to run away from conflict and in fact spent most of his days wandering the land and settling disputes between cranky neighbors. More valiant efforts were far and few between. Some of the Order even called Sir Loire cowardly, which made Quistis fume. Didn't he have any consideration for her status? Well, she was not going to be a squire to some laid-back fool of a knight for any longer! This dragon was as good as vanquished.)_

 

The darkness thinned and then lightened with the sky promising a brilliant sunrise to the east. Quistis lay motionless on her stomach underneath a dense berry bush, so still that three rabbits came up to the bush, realized she was there, and ran away so fast that two of them actually kicked her in the side. The rabbits hardly disturbed her calm. She was as still and quiet as deep water, barely even blinking as she kept watch for her quarry, and her discipline served her well when the dragon suddenly appeared.

 

It was a large dragon, approximately half as long as a block of tight houses in a city, and at the shoulder it was probably two chocobos high. Like most dragons of this region, it was compactly muscled over a skeleton better suited to a deer and its long neck was supple and serpentine. It gleamed like quicksilver, but it had scarlet horns and claws, and the membranes between its wings were a deep red too. It was not a stranger to battle. Scars in silver pocked and crossed its entire body, but there was no mistaking this beast for weak. Quistis's guts trembled. She had seen dragons before and had helped Sir Loire chase one away in a rare heroic moment, but this one was far bigger than that had been. Small, her armored behind! What had the villagers been comparing it to, legends of Bahamut?

 

Well... Fine. She would have to be more careful, that was all. No straightforward charging in on her war chocobo. She would have to make it sleepy with dragonsbane first and then take off its head while it was fighting off the effects of the weed. There was nothing cowardly about making sure one's victory did not cost one's life; such an overly muscular way of thinking was outdated anyway, and besides, it wasn't like the dragon was going to complain about her lack of honor. But Quistis still worried, now because all the reports had said it was a _small_ dragon, so she'd brought enough dragonsbane for a medium! A large... Well. Fine. She would have to be very, very careful.

 

The dragon stretched luxuriantly, having no idea that this was going to be its last day on earth. Absently Quistis thought it was a lovely creature, scars and all—the liquid ripple of muscle under its mercury-like hide was hypnotically pretty, and the duller silver scars turned an otherwise blinding shimmer into a glitter instead. Dawn light shone ruby through the thick webbing of its wings, highlighting the intricate tracery of veins inside. Its horns and claws looked like they were made of polished pigeon's blood rubies. By chance it turned and Quistis expected to see a flash of ruby red eyes, but instead there were two points of glowing blue-green under the dragon's horned brow, all the more noticeable for the contrast of the red and silver around it. Quistis had never seen such eyes on a creature before, mundane or mystical... Or human, for that matter.

 

The dragon was more than three of its own lengths away. Without warning it suddenly flapped its massive wings and leapt off the ground at the same time, blasting dust and debris out from underneath it so hard that from her vantage point, Quistis had to shut her eyes or get blinded by little sticks and stones. The whooshing of wings went further and further away, and when Quistis at last dared to open her eyes, she saw no trace of the dragon on the land or in the skies above her. Shaking from lying still so long and not a small amount of fear, Quistis slowly pushed herself up onto her feet. Dragonsbane might not be enough. And her whip was good—basically a long, serrated, flexible sword in her hands—but the dragon was huge and its hide had looked very thick. This was a much longer shot than she'd anticipated.

 

Her dedication wavered. There were undoubtedly easier targets out there. Ogres, for example. Or Behemoths. Even human bandits would do if there were enough of them to count as a challenge. Quistis nearly left... Except realizing that she'd have to go back to the Order, back to the Garden's archives, back to researching a fell beast, and everyone would know she had failed, or at best, taken the easy way out. Like Sir Loire.

 

Quistis exhaled hard and squared her shoulders. She was getting this dragon's head, and none other's. And she was getting it today.

 

/\

 

In addition to dragonsbane, Quistis had brought chains and a darkness potion to help vanquish the beast. She retrieved her supplies from town and then went to the dragon's den with the intent of setting traps within; if she could fuddle the dragon with the 'bane and tangle it in the chains, she could then blind it with a potion and then take its head off with a minimum of fuss and suffering. Then she was going to buy a cart in the village, because the head was going to be too big to strap to one chocobo, and come to think of it, she would need more lime to preserve the head too...

 

All this ran through Quistis's mind as she went into the dragon's lair. Despite Sir Loire's reluctance to do battle, she had been in dragon lairs before. Some had been cavernous and filled with treasure. Others had been tight tunnels filled with... Well, odd things. Sir Loire had told Quistis that all dragons hoarded something, but just because a dragon valued something didn't mean anybody else did. One dragon had hoarded shoes, for example. Another, spools of thread. This dragon had not been in the area long enough to start building one of its own, so its cave was bare and a cross between cavern and claustrophobia—it was big enough for Quistis, but probably very tight for the dragon. It smelled muskily reptilian when Quistis came in and underneath her feet, pieces of the dragon's shed skin crinkled and cracked. She winced at every noise as she went further into the cave, searching for the best place to set her traps, and after a bit of hunting she found the one thing that all dragon caves had in common—a source of fresh water. This dragon had taken the time to carve a bowl around the spring and so it sat, conveniently collected and very easy to drug. Quistis took the dragonsbane out of her pack pocket and shook the powered herb into the water, where it immediately dissolved. Whether the dragon drank it or simply smelled it as the stuff ran through the water, the effect would be the same—it would become dopey, inattentive, and easy to dispatch. Well... Easier. A small dragon could be instantly beheaded with one strike from Quistis's whip, but this one was going to be much more complicated...

 

“ _Oh, I should have brought a halberd. Or at the least, an axe. Maybe I can get one in the village.”_

 

A blast of air at Quistis's back sent shreds of dragonskin flying around her like leaves and panicked, Quistis turned. The dragon had returned and this cave was not so deep or craggy that there were places to hide inside. As soon as she turned around, Quistis nearly fainted as the dragon's head came rushing toward her, its piercingly blue-green eyes glowing like lanterns in the dark. She stiffened instead, clenching her hands around her whip handle. If this was the end, she was not going to be a coward.

 

She struck out, her whip a bright blur in the cave's darkness, and the dragon's forward rush halted as she slashed it across the face, cutting an upward track that went between its startled eyes. Immediately it bellowed in pain, making Quistis stagger as its voice filled the cave with captive thunder. Unconsciously she clapped one hand over her ear as she struck again, forcing the dragon to pull its head back. The tight confines of the cave helped her here; the dragon couldn't go any directions except forward or back, and forward only held her whip and its terrible pain. Twirling her arm in a tight spiral, Quistis coiled her whip in a very particular way and flicked out at the right time, and the blade at the end sprang out like a striking snake to take full advantage of its fifteen-foot length. If she could at least blind it, she might still be able to vanquish it. The dragon dodged the blade aimed for its eye, but did not watch the weapon's progress like an animal. Instead it stared intently at her, and Quistis gaped in horror as the dragon struck out with its front forelimb and _stepped down on her whip before she could pull it back._ Dragons weren't supposed to do that. They weren't supposed to be smart.

 

Immediately Quistis's priorities changed. She was neither experienced nor strong enough to deal with something she'd never even heard of before, and she didn't even have proper armor on. This was definitely a 'live to fight another day' situation, though her chances were slim. She still had the chains she'd been planning to rig up all over the cave, though. Grabbing one coiled length off her belt, Quistis struck with that left-handed, and though the chain was far too heavy and very unwieldy to respond like a whip, it at least made the dragon look. That gave Quistis time to twist and detach her whip handle, and as the dragon noticed the slack in the weapon under its paw, it did _not_ notice Quistis running forward with the dagger in her hand. Quistis did not strike for the chest right in front of her, which was too heavily armored. Instead, she ducked alongside the dragon's shoulder, her hip scraping the cave wall, and slashed at the garnet wing webbing that stood between her and freedom. She expected it to give like paper or sailcloth. Instead, her dagger bounced off the deceptively fragile webbing and the dragon bellowed again in pain. Quistis choked as the dragon's sides swelled with temper, crushing her into the cave wall and banging her head against the stone. That was bad enough, but then the dragon moved and the crushing pressure rolled over her body like she was a pea between two fingertips. She tried to gasp, but couldn't draw any air in. She tried to struggle, but she couldn't even move.

 

Without warning the pressure abruptly disappeared and Quistis fell from her position on the wall. Reflexively she swung out for something to hold onto, but her hand slapped slick scales instead of anything more useful and her head hit the cave floor with a CRACK she felt shudder through her whole body. And then the dimness inside the cave turned completely black.

 

/\/\/\

 

Fucking _squires._

 

Seifer touched his face gingerly, growling with annoyance. It was a shallow cut and was bleeding a lot, but nothing time couldn't solve. Still, this was his face they were talking about and Seifer did not like the idea of marks on it. Body scars showed he had survived dangerous things, but a facial scar meant someone hadn't gotten close because he'd been stupid, and that was not to be borne. His growl intensifying, he turned toward the annoying pest that had gotten into his cave and glared down at it. It was obviously a squire, having no armor and no support, and smelling young besides. Not even twenty years by Seifer's estimate. It was at least dressed sensibly, which was how Seifer hadn't spotted it until he was nearly all the way in the cave. A petty idea occurred to Seifer.

 

“ _One scar for me, one scar for you... Before I kill you, anyway,”_ thought Seifer, settling onto his haunches and pulling the unconscious squire toward him. Spiking its head outside the cave would go a long way in establishing this territory as his, especially if he cut it between the eyes too: then everyone would know _exactly_ who lived here, not just some generic dragon. He pulled the obscuring scarves off its face, his claws already itching to slash the appropriate mark and then...

 

Glistening, gleaming waves of gold spilled from the stained scarves, making Seifer hiss as the essence of summer sunshine flickered before his eyes. Alabaster skin marbled with delicate blue veins drew him in, gracing a fine-featured face that was soft, yet strong and determined. Lips the color of rubies looked softer than rose petals and dandelion clocks. Seifer breathed and it was like seeing in color for the first time, the way he suddenly noticed how long and elegantly shaped her limbs were, and how the muscles acquired by her training enhanced a beautifully feminine figure. She was the most perfect human he had ever seen, and more than that, the way she smelled was terribly exciting. He could not place the scent as anything other than everything that made him thrilled to be alive, and even with the scents of chocobo, sweaty leather, and iron-conditioning oil, she was still the most amazing bouquet of scents he had ever encountered. Seifer resisted the urge to put his face directly on the squire and inhale deeply, not the least because it would expose his throat to her slashing whip. There was a quickening thud in his five-chambered heart and a flutter in his brain that made him want to sigh, but Seifer resisted those too. His logical mind was dismayed. He had wanted to hoard something cool like weaponry or rare crystal, though Fujin and Raijin had laughed at him when he'd insisted that he would _choose_ his hoard.

 

“You can't decide what your heart wants, ya know?” Raijin had chortled.

 

“INSTINCT,” Fujin had insisted. “RECOGNITION.”

 

A bunch of hooey, as far as Seifer had been concerned _._ Hoarding a human had _never_ been in his plans. They were fragile, short-lived, and annoying to maintain. And yet, the yearning and enchanted infatuation he felt when he looked at the squire was undeniable. Seifer curled his paws under his chest, lost in staring at the perfection of the squire's every pretty detail until she at last sighed, stirred, and then sat up with a groan. Her voice was low and interestingly textured, like slubbed silk to his ears. Seifer unconsciously sighed again. This was _not_ fair. Weakly a part of him still protested that jewels were better, but as the squire whipped around and glared at him with eyes bluer than any sapphire, the objection puffed to smoke. Even when she sprang back with her weapon at the ready, Seifer could not bring himself to be anything other than admiring.

 

Gradually her panic subsided, darkening her eyes with thoughtfulness as she glanced around the cave. Seifer suddenly felt ashamed of his surroundings. He hadn't had the chance to do anything other than claim it yet, so the floor was uneven, the walls were dark, and there was nothing remotely comfortable inside. It was certaintly not suitable to show another dragon, much less keep a hoard in. Seifer fidgeted a little, which made the squire tense up again.

 

“Calm down,” he said. “I'm not going to hurt you.”

 

The squire stared at him. She was so shocked that the point of her weapon actually wavered.

 

“You can talk?” She exclaimed, her voice reassuringly loud despite her recent unconsciousness.

 

“As well as you can,” said Seifer, both amused and annoyed. “Why? Did you think I was some sort of stupid animal?”

 

“Well... Yes,” she said, charmingly honest. She sounded sweet, not unlike birdsong. Having heard humans talk before (well, run from him screaming) Seifer was glad that her voice did not make him want to poke himself in the ear holes.

 

“Nothing in the records ever said anything about dragons talking,” she said dubiously, now eyeing him with less fear and more curiosity.

 

“Probably because your people like to come in swinging and nobody asks questions of dead bodies.”

 

“I guess that's true.” She looked him up and down. “You're... Not going to attack right now, are you?”

 

The idea of striking her sent a wave of revulsion down Seifer's skin, making his platelike scales rattle. There was a dark bloom of a bruise just barely visible at the edge of one of her temples and his heart hurt just to look at it even though he hadn't caused the hurt directly.

 

“No,” he said, and then added, “Though if you strike, I will defend myself. I don't fancy another cut on the face.”

 

“Fair enough,” said the squire, sounding reluctantly intrigued. “So... Why aren't you attacking? Dragons are supposed to be territorial.”

 

“True... But you're a special case,” he said, looking her over. Now that she was awake and standing, her perfection became even more evident. She was quick, strong, and very healthy, unlike the princesses he had heard some other dragons liked to hoard: plus, she had weapons proficiency and that meant she could be left alone without fear of coming back to find her eaten or carried off. Which meant Seifer would not have to tend her like a tiny tree or an inbred wolf (what were those things called... Puppers? Boofs? He didn't care enough to remember).

 

“Why?”

 

“Because...” Unaccountably he felt nervous but didn't linger on 'might be's'. In all circumstances, it was better to deal with what was. Firmly and proudly he stated, “You are my hoard. You're mine. And that means, at the least, you have run of my territory.”

 

She blinked at him. Multiple times. Every blink seemed to make a different thought go through her head until at last she said, quite calmly, “Did you say I was your _hoard?”_

 

“Yes.”

 

“Why?”

 

Why indeed? Seifer mulled over what he could possibly say. There was no way he could describe the feeling of rightness when he looked at her. _“This is something of value,”_ whispered his blood, filling his ears and brain. _“This is something that must be treasured above all else.”_

 

“Because you're interesting,” he said finally.

 

“So you're... What? Going to collect me?” She asked flatly with displeasure. Seifer immediately realized that this squire as at least as proud as he was and she would try to run away if he pressed too hard. So even though part of him wanted to close his claws around her and hold her tight, he instead curled his paws more tightly under his chest and was as calm as possible.

 

“No,” he said. “You're unique. I don't have to 'collect' anything, provided you don't run away.”

 

“Well, I'm not going to live in a cave forever either,” she snapped back, putting her hands on her hips. “For your information, I want to be a knight, which means I'm going to vanquish you or else.”

 

Seifer narrowed his eyes. Slowly so as not to startle her (too much), he uncurled his claws and raised his wings until they brushed the ceiling of the cave. He pitched his voice lower to make it rumble through the floor as well as the air.

 

“I'd recommend the 'else',” he said, and to her credit the squire did not tremble or run. She set her lips in a hard line and glared back just as hard.

 

“Settle down,” she said, not a trace of fear in her voice. “ 'Vanquish' doesn't always mean 'kill'. In this case, it means making it so you don't bother anyone. You just moved in here, didn't you? How do you feel about moving somewhere else?”

 

He cocked his head. “And why would I do that?”

 

“Well, this place seems a little small for you,” she said, gesturing around the cave and looking pointedly at Seifer's tight, folded-in posture. “And if I'm your hoard, I'll need a place to stay too. Which means a bigger cave.”

 

Seifer grumbled. It was not easy to find a cave with a source of fresh water and he thought this one was pretty nice... Though it was really tight... And shallow... And humans were awfully close by, which meant he'd be dealing with an endless string of adventurers and knights while he was trying to build his hoard and at the very least, settle in...

 

“I'll talk to the villagers and say I vanquished you,” she said, making Seifer grumble again. “And then I'll get my shield and we can find you a much better cave.”

 

“And then you'll stay around and be a proper hoard?”

 

“We can talk about that later. Right now, I still want to be a knight, and that means traveling,” she said, making Seifer scowl. She put her hands on her hips again. “If you want me to be yours, that's the deal. I have to be myself.”

 

Seifer did not like this. He did not like the idea of his hoard going places without him, getting into trouble and possibly hurt (after all, she'd been dispatched rather easily just now), and worst of all getting killed. But he saw at once from the flash in her eyes that if he said these things, she would make it her life's mission to either vanquish him more conventionally or forever stay out of his grasp, because while _she_ was very important to him, he clearly did not matter to her. So... What to do?

 

“Fine,” he said, and she did not detect the silky insincerity in his voice. Or she was polite enough not to comment on it. “So. You want to be a knight, and that means me leaving this cave. Yes?”

 

“Yes,” she said, sounding just a little smug. “I have to be able to prove that you won't be a menace any more.”

 

Seifer growled. Keeping a hoard was not supposed to be humiliating. He considered eating this troublesome squire and collecting jewels, but the thought caused him physical pain. Stupid hoard-longing.

 

“Fine,” he growled. “I'll leave the cave. But you should know I can see further and finer than an eagle can, so if you try to run away—”

 

“You'll torch the countryside and rampage?” She said jokingly.

 

“Yes,” he said seriously, and she stared at him in surprise. “I _am_ a dragon. And if what I value is taken from me, I will become very upset.”

 

“Well, I don't care to be looked at like a worm under a lens, so you'll have to be content with leaving me alone sometimes,” she returned just as seriously. “Anyway, I wasn't planning for you to go far away. In order to prove that you won't be a bother _without_ chopping your head off, I need you come with me.”

 

“What?” Seifer sneered. “Following behind like a tame animal or something stupid like that?”

 

“It _would_ be convincing.”

 

It would also be humiliating. Seifer growled and flame filled his mouth, smoke furling from between his fangs. The squire looked at the flames and then at his eyes.

 

“I'm not saying that you should wear a chain or anything like that,” she said, and the flames started roiling around Seifer's muzzle.

 

“A chain would be better! Then it'd be obvious I hated the whole idea.”

 

She cocked her head. “So you'll do it?”

 

“Eeerrghh... _Fine!_ ” Seifer glared powerfully at her. “But if you yank me around or insult me—”

 

“I will treat you with perfect respect,” she said, holding up her hands. “It's very generous of you to do this, really. I'm so grateful. Thank you so much.”

 

She was laying it on thick, but the gratitude soothed Seifer just enough for the flames to die out. Grumbling, he refolded his claws and looked her up and down.

 

“But in exchange for leaving my cave and looking like an idiot, I need something out of you,” he said, and her gaze turned wary.

 

“I'm going to be your hoard,” she said. “Isn't that enough?”

 

“You have no idea what that means,” he said, and she tensed up. “Relax. It's not painful and it won't take away your freedom either. First and foremost, you _have_ to put on some better clothes.”

 

She blinked and then started laughing. The sound of it was delightful—joyful, incredulous, purely amused—and as sweet as her voice was with the added flavor of knowing he'd said something to inspire it. Seifer nearly went cross-eyed with how happy it made him.

 

“You want me to wear better clothes?”

 

“Yes,” he said, shaking off the hoard-stupor. “Something that displays your talents better. You want to be a knight? That means real armor, at the very least.”

 

“I have real armor,” she said, now annoyed. “It's back in the village—”

 

“Where it's doing you a fat lot of good,” he couldn't help but snipe. As she scowled, he said, “Besides, no mortal armor will match what I am going to give you. It'll make you look worthy of having vanquished me. You can even say I gave it to you in exchange for my life or some twaddle... Ugh.”

 

She looked at him warily. “And this armor... It's not cursed so I can't walk away from you or something like that, is it?”

 

Damn, that sounded like a good idea. “No,” Seifer said regretfully.

 

“It's not going to do something nefarious to my mind or body either, right?”

 

“Of course not!” Seifer scowled at the thought. This squire was annoying, sure, but her sharpness and brilliance were better than any old diamond. If something diminished any aspect of her, it would be like deliberately scratching a flawless gemstone.

 

“And it's not some sort of trap?” The squire asked, then shook her head. “I'm being ridiculous. If you wanted to kill me, you would have done it already.”

 

“Of course.”

 

“So... Armor. Functional armor, right?” She pressed, making Seifer roll his eyes. “It's not some, oh... Metal lingerie?”

 

“Why would I put you in metal lingerie?”

 

“I don't know!” For some reason she was blushing. “We just met. I don't know anything about you. Not even your name, come to think of it.”

 

“Seifer,” he said shortly, and when she blinked at him he said, “It's polite to give your name back, you know.”

 

“I'm Quistis.”

 

 _Quistis._ It sounded like the chiming of fine crystal. Seifer suppressed an infatuated sigh. This Quistis woman already had too much power over him and if she ever realized it, he was doomed. More than he already was, anyway.

 

“Well met, Quistis.” He fanned his wings as much as the tight cave would allow. “Now, let's get your armor.”

 

“Where is it?”

 

“My old den, about half a day away.”

 

Quistis pursed her lips. He could tell she was thinking about how this could go wrong for her, but in the end couldn't settle on anything convincing. She nodded once, curtly, and retrieved her whip to put it back together.

 

“Alright. Let me get my chocobos—”

 

“Pfft, _chocobos.”_ Seifer reached out and grabbed her in a ruby-clawed embrace that went from chest to hip. Quistis went rigid, her pale skin becoming even paler. “We'll fly.”

 

“What?” She yelped. “No!”

 

“Yes!” Her shock was delightful. Seifer grinned at her, making her eyes go so big he could see the whites all around them.

 

But then Quistis glared and bared her teeth like she could bite him and do damage. Whacking his topmost claw with the butt of her weapon, she shouted, “Put me down! I don't want to fly!”

 

“Well I don't want to walk while you ride your freaking birds, and _my_ way is faster,” he retorted, turning around and walking three-legged out of the cave. Quistis struggled, but could not get any kind of room to move.

 

“Seifer, put me down right now!”

 

“Or what? You can't hit me. You can't hurt me.” He was outside the cave now, and the explosive snap of his unfurling wings sucked the words from Quistis's mouth. “Relax. It's a short flight, and Fujin and Raijin won't eat you.”

 

“What?!”

 

“Here we go!”

 

“SEIFER!”

 

He surged into the air, only a little awkward for taking off three- instead of four-legged, and immediately set off for the northeast. Fujin and Raijin were going to lose their minds with jealousy once they saw what he was bringing back, but too bad for them—Quistis was his. _All his_. And everyone was going to know it.


	2. Posse and Peasants

Once he was airborne, Seifer cupped his paws around Quistis to hold her against his chest: he didn't want to risk dropping her, nor did he want her getting too cold. It was an awkward flying posture but fortunately a strong tailwind made up for the less-than-streamlined form and got Seifer to the entrance of Fujin and Raijin's cave right at low tide. That allowed Seifer to tuck his wings and glide into the long tunnel for two of his lengths before putting his back claws down into the wet, cold sand. Immediately the chilly ache of sea salt and water started going up his back talons, making Seifer shake off his feet even though he had a fair distance to walk. Water did not bother Fujin and Raijin, of course; they were water dragons from the Far East. But the overwhelming dampness of their cave was why Seifer had needed to leave. He was a dragon of air and fire and a sea cave held nothing for him except shelter.

 

That was not to say that Fujin and Raijin's cave was not nice. There were parts of it that Seifer liked a lot, like the floor being evened out with fine gravel that was comfortable to walk on and never got uncomfortably damp like sand or dirt did. Enchanted pearls set in sconces made of highly polished abalone shells provided a cool light no matter the time of night or day. And most luxurious of all, Fujin and Raijin had collected and cleaned furs from the various shipwrecks they scoured, and there was nothing like sleeping in a warm nest of furs when the sea was raging outside.

 

In fact, Fujin was reading on a fur-draped boulder when Seifer came in, and as he dried his feet off in the warm sand pit that marked th cave proper, she lifted her brow. Being from the Far East, she had very impressive bushy brows that were a summer-cloud silver against her sky blue scales and her horns were like a yearling deer's rather than a horned crest like Seifer's. Serpentine, she coiled upon herself to be both warm and comfortable, holding a scroll between her five-clawed paws as she read some epic or other. Her long catfish-like whiskers wafted toward Seifer and his precious package, not unlike insect antennae.

 

“SNACK?” She asked, brusque as always. She was not as facile with languages as Raijin was and spoke in choppy, accented words whenever possible.

 

“No,” said Seifer proudly. He looked around the cave. “Where's Raijin?”

 

“I'm over here!” boomed the other inhabitant. A second later, a bronze Far Eastern dragon with a black frill down his back and black brows came in from a side tunnel, slithering on his belly so he could finish cleaning his claws of ink. Raijin hoarded art supplies but used them too, with the result that his section of the cave was always messy with ink and paint.

 

“Seifer! Why are you back already?” He asked, cocking his head. Though serpentine like Fujin, Raijin was a good bit fatter around and resembled a well-fed snake rather an eel. “I thought you were finding a cave of your own, ya know?”

 

“I was, and then I found my hoard.” Seifer beamed. Stepping out of the dry sand pit and shaking the irritating grains out of his scales, he set his cupped paws on the gravelly floor of the cave and pulled them apart. “Feast your eyes on this!”

 

Quistis slid bonelessly from his grasp and laid on the floor. At first Seifer sighed, enchanted by the way her beautiful spun-gold hair fanned out all over the stone floor, but then she didn't move and he immediately realized something was wrong. Terribly, horribly wrong.

 

“CORPSE,” said Fujin, her other brow rising.

 

“What?! No!” Seifer immediately bent over Quistis, panic surging in his heart. She was still breathing, thank god. Had she fallen asleep on the flight? Then why wasn't she waking up?

 

“Uh...” Raijin looked at Seifer strangely. “Hoarding dead bodies is kind of—”

 

“She's not dead!” Seifer bellowed. He pulled her hair away from her face and then turned her onto her back. “Hey, Quistis! Wake up!”

 

Quistis did not move. Cold horror crept over Seifer's skin, threatening to shiver his scales off. Unconsciously he bated from foot to foot, his gaze never moving from Quistis. Fujin and Raijin came over, crowding Seifer's headspace until he snarled at them. Used to his temper, they both flicked at him and kept observing Quistis.

 

“I think she's fainted,” said Raijin after a moment, poking Quistis in the cheek with one of his ink-tipped whiskers. Any other dragon would have gotten his face bit off for touching Seifer's hoard, but this was Raijin and Seifer trusted him and Fujin above all others. Nevertheless Seifer growled as Raijin poked Quistis again, this time in the ear. “Yep, she's definitely fainted. Humans _hate_ being poked in the ear.”

 

“UNDERSTANDABLE,” said Fujin, looking at Quistis speculatively. The fan at the end of her long tail dipped into the freshwater stream that ran the length of their cave and then flicked a hearty splash of it onto Quistis's face. She came awake sputtering and coughing, which made Seifer sag with relief.

 

“Why did you faint?” He demanded as she jumped to her feet and looked around, bewildered. “You weren't that scared by flying. You didn't scream.”

 

“Where am I?!” She looked at him wildly. “Who are you?! Why are you talking?”

 

“Seifer, hoarding stupid blonde women isn't really better than hoarding corpses,” said Raijin disapprovingly. Quistis stared at him in shock, her mouth falling open.

 

“She's not stupid!” Seifer snapped furiously.

 

“DISORIENTED,” said Fujin, and Quistis stared at her too. She was very nearly spinning in place to look at all three dragons, which on the one hand was pretty because her hair flew about like golden leaves in an autumn wind and her sapphire-like eyes were beautifully bright, but she smelled like verging panic and a certain hostility that Fujin and Raijin were undoubtedly picking up on. Seifer put his wings in his friends' faces and pushed them back. They went, but rose up onto their coils to see what was happening.

 

Seifer put his head down to Quistis's level, looking into her eyes. She tensed up, raising her whip but not drawing back to strike yet. Good. His muzzle had healed already but she had flayed it down to the bone and the area she'd hit still ached dully. That whip was definitely not to be messed with.

 

“Calm down,” said Seifer, trying to modulate his voice to a soothing softness. It was not easy with a long dragon throat. “You're not in danger. You won't _be_ in danger, either. I'm Seifer and you're my hoard. Remember?”

 

Quistis still looked at him like she was expecting him to take a bite out of her or perhaps swallow her whole. What if she had actually forgotten? Seifer had no idea what to do. He kept talking.

 

“You want to be a knight. This means taking me into the village on a chain and saying you vanquished me. I want to give you armor that looks like you actually did it, remember?”

 

“...Right,” she said faintly, and Seifer sagged with relief. He did not see Fujin and Raijin exchanging looks.

 

“Good. Now that that's settled, why did you faint?” Seifer demanded, relief making him sharp. “I thought you were tougher than that.”

 

“Toughness of body doesn't mean I can breathe half a mile off the ground,” she retorted. “I _told_ you I didn't want to fly.”

 

“Did you still want to be riding your smelly birds?” Seifer demanded. “Who'd probably be completely unmanageable once they caught sight or smell of me?”

 

She scowled at that but folded her arms and said nothing. She looked around instead, her sharp and intelligent look highlighted in silver by the cave's enchanted lights. After assessing her surroundings, she looked at Fujin and Raijin, who were still coiled up and regarding her calmly.

 

“So... Fujin and Raijin?” She asked, and they inclined their heads. “I assume this is your cave?”

 

“YES,” said Fujin, and Quistis managed not to jump at the sound of her voice. Meanwhile Raijin looked at Seifer.

 

“You're giving her armor?”

 

“Yeah. What's with your tone?”

 

“Nothing, just...” Raijin's brows twitched with humor. “Didn't take you for someone who likes playing dress-up. OW!”

 

“IDIOT,” said Fujin as Raijin rubbed his face against the floor with an aggravated whine—she had thwapped him in the eye with one of her whiskers.

 

Seifer tucked his wings tighter, trying to look humble in front of his friends. “So, can I? The adamantine one?”

 

“HMM.” Fujin inspected her claws and glanced at Raijin. “HIMEJAKO?”

 

“OOOH, yeah!” Raijin lit up, his mouth dropping open with a pool of saliva already collecting near his short fangs. Seifer groaned.

 

“Oh come on! Can't you build a fire?”

 

“No!” said both Far Eastern dragons, and immediately left the central cave in the slithery way they moved around when not in the water. Their rapid exit made gravel spray into the air, making Seifer instantly clap his wings around Quistis so she didn't get blinded by a stray pebble.

 

“What's a himejako?” Quistis asked, looking up at him quizzically. Seifer felt a surge of pride that she pronounced the word correctly with not even a stumble.

 

“They're giant clams,” he said, and when her brows raised, he explained, “Really, _really_ giant clams. They don't open for anything except extreme heat, and since Fujin and Raijin can't breathe fire—”

 

“I see,” she said, very amused but good enough to keep most of her smile to herself. As a result, the humor came through her eyes and made them glitter. Seifer nearly lost himself in staring and as a result, belatedly noticed Fujin and Raijin coming back with their forelimbs full of giant clams. Seifer boggled when he saw the amount they'd brought.

 

“Did you harvest a whole reef while I was gone?” He demanded, outraged, as they started laying the clams out one by one along the river in the cave. There was a certain amount of delighted chortling from both of them. They _really_ liked himejako. Meanwhile Quistis was staring at the clams, which were nearly as wide as she was tall and tightly shut with a wavy, interlocking seam.

 

“Adamantine armor isn't cheap, ya know?” Raijin patted the last clam into place and then wriggled back with a serpentine flick of his body that put him squarely next to Seifer. “Okay. Now remember, we want 'em _steamed,_ not smoked.”

 

“TENDER,” agreed Fujin, wriggling back to Seifer's other side. Seifer grumbled, but then another thought occurred to him. Quistis had never seen him breathe fire before. He knew she was less than impressed with him now, but this was an opportunity to change that. He swept her close to his chest and curled his claws loosely around her as he took a deep breath that made his sides ache slightly.

 

“Don't move and don't get in front of me,” he said when she made a noise of protest. Meanwhile Fujin and Raijin chortled and settled in, coiling up tight to expose as little of their water-loving skin to Seifer's heat as possible. Seifer took another deep breath and felt his ribs loosen slightly in preparation for a sustained fireblast. One more deep breath and he felt his wing sockets loosen a little too: maybe someday he'd have the trick of breathing fire while flying, but at this point it took everything he had to get a real blast going. The third chamber in his throat started to heat up with the effort of holding all the air in and Seifer felt his fangs starting to itch. When it felt like ants were biting him all over the gums, it was time.He felt Quistis flinch against his chest as cherry-red flames roared out in a mighty river, instantly engulfing three clams and filling the air with a savory, briny smell that was not all clam meat. Apparently Fujin and Raijin had tried to stuff the stubborn clams with spices.

 

“MOVE!” said Fujin, and Seifer turned down the line to roast the next three clams. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Raijin uncoil just enough to flick the now red-hot giant clams into the water, where they instantly hissed and filled the cave with thick, fragrant white steam. It took two more fire-breaths to roast all twenty clams, and by then the air was so thick with moisture and scent that it was like swallowing clouds. Seifer's head was swimming with the heated effort of blowing so much flame, but his chest swelled with pride. He had come a very long way from the dizzy little dragonet who could barely cough sparks, and now nearly unlimited fireblasts were his to command whenever he wanted. Flying was unparalleled in freedom, but when it came to sheer power and feeling most dragon-like, nothing beat the feeling of roaring flame.

 

“Well?” He asked of Fujin and Raijin, who were staring at the cooling clams and clicking their claws impatiently.

 

“THIRD CAVE, MY SIDE,” said Fujin, her focus never wavering.

 

“Yeah, yeah,” said Seifer and looked down at Quistis. Protected in the space between his folded wing and his body, she had not been roasted like the clams. Seifer's heart swelled when he saw she had actually been leaning against him, her hands on his shoulder and her eyes wide with astonishment and new respect. A fresh burst of pride made Seifer swell until he felt like he was going to pop with it. Quistis should know just how lucky she was to have _him_ as her dragon.

 

“Ready for your armor?” He asked her, making her blink and look up at him.

 

“I suppose I am,” she said somewhat faintly. “That was... Very impressive.”

 

Seifer preened. “Of course it was. Now let's go.”

 

/\/\/\

 

Seifer's bulk kept Quistis from seeing much of the cave even though she walked mostly behind him, partly to keep him in sight and partly to avoid getting crushed into the cave walls again. She was still wary of Seifer and his dragon friends, but no longer afraid; between their friendliness and their intelligence, Quistis couldn't help but think of these huge scaly beasts as huge scaly _people_ and honestly, she had met plenty of frightening people before and come out just fine. After a while, Seifer turned and Quistis had to hop over his tail to keep from getting tripped by it, which distracted her from the first sight of a sea dragon's treasure cave. The noise, however, made her look up immediately.

 

“Where is it, where is it...” Seifer was digging through piles of gold and silver like they were sand dunes, making Quistis's jaw drop at all the accumulated wealth. And his carelessness. She had to dodge as a huge lumpy object about the size of her leg and gleaming in a silky sort of way went flying past her side. “Damn it, why doesn't she ever keep things in one—AH-HAH!”

 

He whirled around again, forcing Quistis to both jump and duck as his tail swept low and his near wing nearly took her head off. She would have glared at him except he practically threw a pile of something incredibly shiny and light into her hands and said, “Put it on.”

 

“What, this?” Quistis shook the shiny stuff out. It was the strangest color she had ever seen, shifting from orange to pink with glints of gold, and it seemed to be made of thousands of interlocking rings. “This is a suit of mail.”

 

“Yeah. It's good armor.”

 

“It's not plate.”

 

Seifer's eyes glinted. “I've seen the way you move. This'll suit you better than any collection of belts and bucklers.”

 

Quistis would have snapped at him except he had a point. Her one suit of plate armor had in fact been so inflexible that over the years, Quistis had replaced all the belts with longer, wider ones to accommodate her greater need for motion. The end result, however, was more practical than pretty and it gave the distinct impression that Sir Loire was too cheap to buy Quistis anything of quality. Which was not true, since the man didn't exactly go about in brand new armor of his own, but still... Quistis shook the mail shirt, which rippled its lovely sunset colors again, and unconsciously sighed in admiration. It couldn't hurt to try it on.

 

The mail was disconcertingly light, but fortunately this was not the first time Quistis had ever encountered adamantine mail. One of the other knights in the Order had a shirt of the stuff too, though his was owhere near as pretty. He had let the squires examine it in case they ever encountered an enemy in the field who was wearing the stuff.

 

“Don't try to go through it,” he'd told them firmly. “Stabbing, slashing, bashing, none of it works with adamantine. It's even got limited protection against magic provided the caster isn't sorceress-class or above. If you ever get your hands on any, keep it close and keep it _always._ It's worth your life and the lives of the people you'll be able to protect while you're wearing it.”

 

This mail shirt was more properly a hauberk and was long enough to go to Quistis's knees and wrists. As Quistis smoothed it down, she couldn't help but think that it fit exceptionally well and after jumping, kicking, and bending in a variety of ways, she was satisfied that the mail wouldn't impede her motion and still keep her protected. Seifer watched her closely, his blue-green eyes darkening as his pupils swelled to near circles. The ruby webbing of his wings flushed a deeper scarlet as a little ripple made a silver line go down his quicksilvery hide. Having seen these signs several times before, Quistis knew without asking that Seifer _definitely_ approved. She wondered if he had any idea how obvious he was in his infatuation. In a man it would have been unnerving, but somehow from a dragon it was sort of... Cute. Scales and claws and other spiky things notwithstanding, anyway.

 

“It feels pretty good,” said Quistis, smoothing the ringmail down again. Each ring was so small that she couldn't fit her pinky through and the entire hauberk felt both silky and strong. It was definitely quality stuff.

 

“Here,” said Seifer, pulling a cloth-of-gold drape off the biggest and most flawless mirror Quistis had ever seen. “Take a look at yourself.”

 

She looked. For a second Quistis had no idea who she was looking at, because the tall woman in the coral-orange armor looking back at her seemed like a stranger. She looked more than tough or strong, and more amazing than any knight Quistis had ever seen in real life. She looked... Legendary. Totally of capable of taking down a dragon all by herself, and then vanquishing a couple of trolls on the way home. Quistis couldn't help but smile and once she started, she couldn't stop even when her face started to hurt. Seifer looked at her reflection too, crossing his paws at the wrist like some long-legged dogs did. He looked calm and pleased, a quiet hum of adoration making the air vibrate around his throat.

 

“Nice,” was all he said, however, and Quistis chuckled. “I wouldn't be embarrassed to be vanquished by you now.”

 

“Which means it's time for _your_ accessories,” she said, and Seifer scowled. “Would you feel better if it was a fancy chain?”

 

“No,” he groused. “I'll feel better when it's all done. Just do me one favor and wait until we're near the village. I don't want to hear anything stupid from Fujin and Raijin.”

 

“Your secret's safe with me.”

 

Fortunately there was nothing to keep from Fujin and Raijin. When they entered the main cave, both dragons were sprawled out on the gravel floor, visibly fatter and sleeping with deep, slow breaths that smelled overwhelmingly of clam. Seifer minced over Raijin, who was flat on his back with all four short limbs in the air and sleeping with his mouth open, and half-hopped over Fujin, who was a boneless-looking swirl of sky blue on the floor. Being smaller, Quistis tiptoed around the Far Eastern dragons and tried not to choke from the salty clam scent. Empty shells the size of large crates were scattered all over the cave floor, some of them still steaming from Seifer's flames. One of them held a pile of lumpy objects with an oddly familiar sheen, and it wasn't until Quistis and Seifer had left the cave that Quistis realized they were pearls. She'd seen one in the treasure cave. No wonder roasting clams had been a suitable payment for armor.

 

“Alright, come here,” said Seifer, reaching for Quistis again. “Time to go.”

 

At once Quistis's good mood vanished and she backed up, automatically going for her weapon. “No!”

 

“How else did you think we were going to get out of here?”

 

Quistis looked around helplessly. There was nothing but the sea before her, and when she turned around Quistis saw that the beach she was standing on was both small and backed up directly to one of the tallest, sheerest cliffs she had ever seen. She looked around again anyway, her mouth going dry as she realized her total lack of options. Seifer watched her somewhat impatiently, but to his credit waited until she looked back at him to say, “Well? Don't make me grab you. Armor or not, I might squeeze too hard and make you faint again.”

 

“ _That's not why I fainted,”_ thought Quistis, a cold chill drenching her entire stomach. There were very few things that Quistis was afraid of, which made the fact that _heights_ was one of them all the more galling. Going down the wrong kind of mountain too fast could make her ill, and she always kept away from the edges of parapets and tall walls out of an obsessive fear that the ground would suddenly disappear and drop her to her death. It had nearly happened once when she'd still lived at home with her family. Heavy rains had made the forest paths around her home very slippery, and off Quistis had gone over a cliff at the age of five. Obviously she had lived and had even saved herself thanks to catching some dangling tree roots, yet Quistis still woke up in the night covered in cold sweat from the memory of helplessly dangling in the air, the ground so far below that it looked fuzzy. In real life Quistis had managed to pull herself up, but in her nightmares she could never get a grip and just hung there forever, paralyzed by knowing that one wrong move would spell her death...

 

And this absolutely crazy dragon wanted to take her _flying?_ Again? No. No.

 

“Come here,” said Seifer, reaching out. Quistis backed up again, her heart hammering so hard that she heard it more than the crashing of the waves. He had no idea what he was asking of her. She opened her mouth to say as much but then Seifer leaned forward and grabbed her around the waist again. His claws were just long and curved enough to circle her almost entirely, clamping into a snug vice as he put her agaist his chest once more. Quistis struggled, fear making her head go tight and empty at the same time.

 

“Seifer, put me down!”

 

“Oh calm down,” he shouted back. “I told you, I'm not going to squeeze you this time! Here we go!”

 

“Seifer—”

 

It was no use. With a powerful surge Quistis could feel shoving at her back, Seifer sprang into the air and flapped his wings hard, surging higher and higher like he was jumping up invisible stairsteps. The wind immediately sucked the words from Quistis's lungs, leaving her gasping for breath and fright. It was marginally easier to look up and stare up at the flexing ribbon of Seifer's long throat than it was to look down and see the land falling away underneath her, but the comfort was lost as Seifer turned and the sky tilted like the entire world was flipping upside down. Quistis would have screamed then, but she was trying to keep her stomach from flipping upside down too. As Seifer straightened out and started flying back over the land, Quistis clutched her whip handle and thought to herself, _“I survived the first flight. I'll survive this one too. He won't drop me. He won't drop me. I'll be fine. I'll survive.”_

 

Chanting inside her head helped keep her conscious, and as Seifer kept gliding as steadily as a seabird, Quistis slowly calmed down. The land was still too far below, but she forced herself to think of the gret forests and rivers below as piles of fabric and ribbon tossed on the floor, and reducing them to such harmless objects further helped ease her stress. Ahead of them, the sky was nearly white with a band of blue near the horizon; to their sides, it was turning as brilliantly orange and pink as her mail. She glanced down at her sleeve, which seemed to gleam with sunset brilliace, and felt a little surge of gladness go through her once more. So this was the armor of someone who flew with dragons... Quistis laughed a little breathlessly and felt the panic inside her fade a little more.

 

“ _It's all worth it. I'm going to be a knight. We'll go into the village, the chief will sign my papers, and then it's back to the Order for my shield. I'll be Dame Quistis of the Holy Order of Eden by week's end!”_

 

It was a very heartening thought, one that Quistis held onto particularly hard as Seifer started sloping into a long gliding descent. As the ground loomed closer with every passing minute, Quistis clutched her whip handle again and whispered her long-dreamed-after title like a prayer, her words carried heavenward by the wind Seifer spilled from his wings. When the details of the ground started to get recognizable Quistis shut her eyes, and after an eternity of dread the air started to swoosh again, whipping up a maelstrom that had little bits of things flying around her face. Then there was a heavy THUD that sent motion crashing through Quistis's back again, and Seifer's cage of claws finally opened.

 

“Conscious?” He asked, his voice sounding muffled after hours of air rushing over Quistis's ears. The ground seemed unsteady after so long in the air and Quistis staggered like she'd had a pint of mead and an ill-advised twirling contest. She was aware of Seifer looking at her strangely. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

 

“Nothing,” she hissed back, mortified. Now that she was back on the ground and definitely not dead, her fear had space to turn into anger. “I'm _fine.”_

 

“Fine,” Seifer retorted, sounding nettled. “Then let's get this stupidity over with.”

 

 _Stupidity?_ Quistis was sorely tempted to strike him. She could still earn her shield the proper way instead of having it fall into her lap... He'd never see it coming, either...

 

A rattling of chains made Quistis look over her shoulder. Seifer was coming back out of his cave with a look of such contempt that it practically saturated his entire being, and chains tossed over his neck and back. He looked like he could vomit and yet came straight up to Quistis to plop himself huffily on the grass, making it ripple with the force of his landing. With no hesitation or fear, he laid his head down in front of her and said, “Make it convincing.”

 

“ _He trusts me,”_ Quistis realized, and her half-formed notion of murder turned to shame. She was still plenty angry, though, and took her time tying the chains around his muzzle like he would actually bite her. Stupid dragon, making her fly again. He was lucky she hadn't thrown up all over him or worse. For good measure she wrapped chains around his wings too, though they weren't nearly long enough to actually bind them down and she had to settle for looping them around the bases. Seifer grumbled a bit at that but stayed still until Quistis was satisfied that he looked suitably restrained.

 

“Alright, all done,” she said as she surveyed her handiwork. “How is it?”

 

“Tight,” said Seifer, his jaw barely moving to admit the word. “But fine.”

 

“Nothing's pinching you, is it?” Quistis asked, eyeing the links around the bases of his wings.

 

“No.” He stood up and rolled his shoulders, making the chains rattle and scrape over his hide with painful-sounding screeches. “Let's go. I'm itchy.”

 

Quistis took hold of a dangling chain she'd left loose for just this purpose and tugged lightly. Seifer grumbled but shuffled forward, his claws digging furrows that could trip a deer with each step.

 

“Cheer up,” she told him as he grudgingly crept forward. “It'll be over soon. But don't look too cheerful, either, or the villagers will realize something's wrong.”

 

“I know how to act! Hmph.” Seifer visibly slumped and started not only dragging his feet, but his tail and wings too. He looked like a kicked dog except for the grumpiness wrinkling his muzzle and the sullen fire in his bright blue-green eyes. Quistis resisted snickering at him.

 

“Very nice,” she said instead, which elicited a low growl that made the earth buzz under her feet. “Let's go and get this over with.”

 

The village was an hour away by walking at a brisk pace, but it seemed longer for the silence. Birds and small animals fled their approach, and once a wild boar had trotted into view, taken one look at Seifer, and then run away squealing in fear. Seifer had eyed it speculatively but said nothing even as his stomach growled loud enough to make Quistis jump in shock. That was otherwise the only interruption. The walk back, Quistis mentally rehearsed what she was going to say to the villagers and by the time the little town came into sight, she felt confident and ready. Apparently someone had spotted her and Seifer coming, because there was a group of armed farmers waiting halfway between the edge of the forest and their village, headed by a heavily muscled person of indiscriminate gender who Quistis had been introduced to that morning as “Chief”.

 

“I have vanquished the dragon!” She shouted, stopping a safe distance away from the armed and nervous villagers. She was fairly certain they couldn't hurt Seifer with their farming implements, but he would certainly take the attack amiss and hurt them in his pique. Seifer planted himself on the ground and stayed still aside from a very slow and displeased clawing of the earth.

 

“It ain't vanished, it's still there!” Chief shouted back while the rest of the villagers eyed Seifer fearfully.

 

Quistis cupped her hands around her mouth. “I said VANQUISHED, not vanished!”

 

“Ain't that either, it's still alive!”

 

Quistis scowled. Reaching underneath her mail, she pulled out a folded sheet of parchment and shook it open, shouting, “All this says is 'the beast will be _vanquished_ ' which means not able to cause problems anymore! As you can see, he's been tamed.”

 

“Hrmph...” Seifer grunted, dragging up more earth.

 

“And I'll be taking him with me when I go, which means he won't be around to bother you! Therefore, he is _vanquished!_ ”

 

“But it's ain't dead!”

 

“He doesn't have to be dead!”

 

“No dead dragon, no signed paper!”

 

Which in the absence of no dragon's head, meant no knighthood. Quistis swallowed, feeling like the ground was falling out from under her again.

 

“He won't attack your flocks, he won't fly over your farms—”

 

“Still ain't dead!”

 

“He won't get into territory fights with other dragons or—”

 

“Still ain't dead!” Chief pointed at Seifer with a massive hammer, saying, “Just slit its throat now and have done with it!”

 

Quistis looked helplessly at Seifer, who eyed her sidelong and clenched massive fistfuls of dirt in both paws. But he did not move and did not say anything. He did not even look at her weapon, which made Quistis eventually look away in shame.

 

“I worked too hard to tame this dragon to get rid of him!” she shouted back and heard Seifer snort at her side. “And I did exactly what I said I was going to do! So sign my paper!”

 

“Or what, you'll let it loose?” Chief snorted and said, “Yer not that kind of warrior, lassie, otherwise ye'd not be bothering with orders and knights and such. We won't sign for nothing but a dead menace, and if ye won't kill the dragon, ye'll have to kill something else.”

 

Something else? ' _Something else'_ didn't just come up out of nowhere! Quistis had spent many long hours searching the Order's active requests for something that wasn't too easy, wasn't too tough, and wasn't already claimed by another knight and squire. She swallowed again, trying to fight against a growing dismay and outrage that made her want to scream. This wasn't fair!

 

“ _Isn't it?”_ asked her dry logical side. _“You didn't actually work for this. Seifer just happened to take one look at you and decide he wanted to keep you. Is that what you've been training for this entire time? To be_ pretty _enough to catch someone's eye?”_

 

The realization nearly made Quistis throw down the chain in horror and disgust. She had _never_ wanted to be someone's trophy, to be discarded as soon as she got too old or too 'smart' or too much anything that stupid people feared. It didn't matter that Seifer was a dragon and not a human, and that he called her his 'hoard' instead of 'darling' or 'sweetheart'. What had she been working the last eight years of her life for?!

 

“Yeah,” said someone out of the village crowd. “Like the witch!”

 

Immediately the group burst into noise, most of which seemed approving. After a couple of moments of intense discussion, Chief turned around with a considering look in his/her/their eyes.

 

“We'll sign your paper if you kill the witch,” Chief said firmly.

 

“What witch is this?” Quistis asked, not sure if she was grateful or concerned at the speedy replacement.

 

“The witch in the flying castle,” said Chief, pointing off toward the south. “She moors it near the cape. E'ery nowinthin she takes it out and steals girls from the countryside. She took some of ours two years back and gods only know what becomes of 'em, we never see 'em again.”

 

Well, that definitely sounded wicked enough to be dealt with one way or another. But Quistis hesitated. She didn't like jumping into situations blind and she hadn't brought anything with her that was capable of dealing with a witch either. And a flying castle? How would she even get into such a thing? And even if she could reach it, there were probably protective enchantments all around it too...

 

“Hehehehe.”

 

“What's so funny?” She asked Seifer, glaring at him.

 

“Witches,” he chuckled. Giving his shoulders a little shake, he said, “Their magic tickles.”

 

“What? You've met a witch before?”

 

“Yeah,” said Seifer, chuckling again. “She thought I stole her crystal eyeball and threw some spells at me. Turned out she left it under a cushion in her house, but the spells fell off like water. You should have seen her face!”

 

But Quistis wasn't laughing. Her guts were clenching in fear again, but she eyed Seifer's wings with great consideration and the fact that he also apparently could not be hurt by magic.

 

“Seifer—”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“I didn't saying anything.”

 

“You didn't have to,” said Seifer, lifting one claw to scratch an itch on his muzzle. “You'd never be satisfied with an easy win. Mind, the killing blow has to be yours but I'll make sure it's a fair fight for you.”

 

Quistis sighed in relief. “Thank you.”

 

“Don't thank me yet. You'll owe me.” His eyes glinted. “You have to put a draco border on your shield.”

 

“A draco—how do you even know about that?”

 

“You gonna do it or not?”

 

“I'll do it,” she said, still surprised. “But—”

 

“Good. Now tell the yokels so we can leave.” Seifer fanned his wings slightly, making the villagers panic. She saw a slow grin of evil glee spread over his long muzzle. “Immediately.”

 

Quistis had a sudden vision of hanging desperately onto the chain looped around Seifer's muzzle as he took off with great gusto and nearly fainted from the image. Getting herself under control with a hard swallow, she shouted to the villagers, “Fine! Since you won't accept my tame dragon, I'll kill the witch. But you have to sign my papers _at once_ , and if you say that I haven't done what I said I would, I'm going straight back to the Order and letting them know of your perfidy!”

 

“Just kill the witch!” Chief bellowed back. “Bring us her wings so we know she's dead, and we'll sign yer dammed paper!”

 

“Fine!”

 

“Fine!”

 

“Fine!” Seifer exhorted, and with an explosive surge threw his wings free of the chains. Quistis immediately covered her head as broken links went flying through the air, banging harmlessly off her new mail suit and raking a welt across the back of one leg that was only protected by a boot. The villagers screamed and fled back to their dwellings immediately, making Seifer fling the chains off his muzzle and laugh heartily. Quistis would have snapped at him except he just looked so _happy_ and she couldn't deny that it was sort of nice to see those cheap little villagers run. They _had_ promised to sign her hunt papers for the Order, contingent on vanquishing a dragon, and while she was glad for a real target, she'd still technically done what she'd been tasked. So there.

 

“Let's go!” She shouted, sudden elation buoying her against the inevitable realization that once again, they were going to fly. Rare reckless energy made her feel giddy, but it was impossible not to be excited looking up at a huge, dangerous dragon that was literally gleaming in the sunlight, and when he looked down at her with a massive toothy grin that was full of trust and humor, she couldn't help but feel like everything was going to work out. This time when Seifer held out his claws, Quistis walked confidently into them and kept her eyes focused on the sky instead of the ground as he took off. It was time to look to the future and all its coming successes.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail again.


	3. The 'Witch'

Whether by accident or design Seifer’s claws made more of a ball than a basket for this flight. Though that meant Quistis had to sit with her knees up instead of half-standing like before, the upside was that she couldn’t see anything and that she was much more sheltered from the wind. Without the dizzying views and icy gales stealing her breath and making her too aware of where she was, Quistis was actually able to relax. It also helped that she was still up against Seifer’s chest, and when she put her hand on his scales she could feel the low canter of his massive heart. Despite all the effort he had to be using to fly, it remained slow and steady, and absently Quistis realized there were five separate beats instead of two like her own. Thump-thump-thump, thump-thump. Thump-thump-thump, thump-thump. Its unfamiliar rhythm was nevertheless soothing, and thus lulled to calm, Quistis had absolutely no warning before a sudden impact nearly crushed her against Seifer’s chest. He locked his claws and saved her from anything worse than a hard squeeze, but she felt force shuddering through his entire body and there were two loud SLAPS as his wings hit something and flattened against them.

 

Then they started to _fall._

 

Quistis’s panic came back in full force, but she had just enough wit about her to start shouting. “Seifer! Are you alright? What’s wrong?”

 

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Seifer snapped back, and she heard the swooshing of his wings. At once their near-descent turned into a hard upward surge that nearly made Quistis ill. “Just fucking FURIOUS!”

 

“What happened?”

 

“We hit a barrier around the witch’s castle. Hold on, I’m finding another way in.”

 

The castle? They were there already? Quistis peeked through a crack between two of Seifer’s claws that let in a knifelike gust of fresh air and the only view of the world outside. She saw slivers of parapets and walls, of dead rock suspended over dazzling sea, and several massive chains with links that were bigger than two chocobos stacked on top of each other. Suddenly the villagers’ description of “she moors her floating castle on the cape” made sense, though seeing physical proof of the witch’s power made Quistis’s guts quiver in ways that flying didn’t. After circling around, Seifer at last turned and landed on something that creaked and rattled. He walked down it awkwardly, his stride reminding Quistis of hopping crows she had seen on land. Finally he set her down and let her out of his claws. 

 

“She didn’t just make a floating castle, she ripped up the foundations and the dock underneath it,” said Seifer as Quistis took a moment to get her breath and balance back. He was looking around the area they were in, which was more than tall and wide enough for him to maneuver about, but as Quistis looked back the way they came, she saw the spindly suspended walkway that Seifer must have landed and come creeping in on. Seeing the sky glowing on the other side of it instead of water made Quistis ill, so she looked the other way and saw a long, tall hallway with two narrow doors and witchlights like the kind she’d seen in Fujin and Raijin’s cave burning on either side. 

 

“Let’s move,” she said to Seifer. “If you hit a barrier spell above, she probably knows we’re here.”

 

“She’ll know _I’m_ here,” said Seifer, looking at Quistis with a light frown. “But she shouldn’t know about you. You were in my claws, which means you were protected from magic.”

 

“So if we split up, she won’t be expecting me.”

 

“We’re not splitting up, but yes, she won’t be expecting you.” Seifer inspected the claws on one forelimb, turning it upwards to look between his toes like cats did. “And she won’t be expecting me to be on your side, either. Bitch. Who the hell puts up a barrier over a floating castle?”

 

“Someone who expects aerial assault, obviously.”

 

“She must be irritating all kinds of people, then,” Seifer groused as he started walking toward the doors. “Probably taking more than just human girls. And people say _dragons_ have bad hoarding habits.”

 

“I don’t think she’s hoarding girls, Seifer.”

 

“What else could she be doing with them?” He nosed the double doors open and kept walking, making Quistis run a little so she could get through without having to go under his legs and chest. It was easier to keep up with him here than in the cave: the hall was quite wide and very tall, giving Seifer enough room to walk at a relaxed pace and for Quistis to stay up near his head instead of at his heels. 

 

“Any number of things, I suppose,” said Quistis a little doubtfully. “Usually when magic users steal people, it’s because they’re after something about them. Like their souls or magical talents. Maybe she’s taking girls for those reasons.”

 

“Why would a witch need magical talents? She already has them.”

 

“Yes, but she can augment her natural abilities with stolen ones. It’s not uncommon for evil witches to do just that.”

 

“Know a lot about witches, do you?”

 

“I know a bit,” Quistis said, not sure if she was annoyed or amused by Seifer’s diffidence. “My mother was one. And she told me to steer clear of the evils.”

 

Seifer looked at her with renewed interest. “So you’re part magical… Interesting.”

 

“Not enough to matter,” said Quistis with a little shake of the head. “In any case, we should focus. I’d hate for the witch to sneak up on us.”

 

Seifer grunted in agreement and they walked on. Stealth aside, Quistis did not want to make any more noise in this place than possible. Something in the air was making her hair stand on end, and as they walked down the hallway, Quistis suddenly realized that what she’d taken to be rough-hewn rock was actually stacks of bone that were placed in macabre decoration. She swallowed hard and clutched her whip handle as they passed a decorative border of skulls that seemed to follow her with their empty eye sockets. If the witch had been responsible for all these deaths, how long had she been collecting girls? And how many did she take at a time? What did she need them for?

 

_“Can I defeat her?”_

 

Quistis hesitated just a step. If this witch was really so powerful, there was nothing wrong with going back to the Order and getting reinforcements. At the end of the day, knighthood was the means to the end of destroying evil and protecting the innocent. So if Quistis came back with more people, real knights with experience, the witch would surely fall and Quistis would be lauded for her wisdom and good sense. She didn’t have to kill the witch herself… But just as the doubt started to become solid, the hall ended in a set of double doors that Seifer nosed open again, and the sight of the room beyond banished Quistis’s fears with sheer astonishment. Where the hall had been dark, this room was bright with candles beyond counting. Lining the walls here were not aged bones, but gilt-flocked paper and artwork in weighty, opulent frames. Quistis had to check behind her to make sure the room and the hallway were part of the same castle.

 

Seifer walked into the room, wings pulled in tight to avoid tipping artwork off the walls and head swinging low and high to observe the entire place. “It’s empty,” he said after a moment, which made Quistis realize he’d been looking out for her. Before she could be touched, he commented, “Can’t say I think much of the subject matter, though.”

 

Quistis looked at the nearest painting. A lion-faced demon with crimson horns was crouching on the ground, pulling something apart with an ignorant’s idle amusement. She looked at the thing more closely. The thing was a knight in armor, the arms and legs bent like broken twigs, and as if that wasn’t unsettling enough, the face of the tormented knight was both visible and in agony. Quistis immediately backed up into Seifer’s side. If the hauberk had been made of scale instead of ringmail, it would have started rattling from the force of her sudden shivers. The pretty golden room had at once become far more frightening than the hall.

 

“Are they all like that?” Quistis whispered. 

 

“Yup,” said Seifer, his voice flat with disapproval. He sounded completely and reassuringly unafraid. When Quistis looked up at him, he was looking around the terrible gallery and said, “She’s got a lot of spare time on her hands in more ways than one. There’s at least twelve different paintings here and none of them look like they were done quick.”

 

Quistis nearly looked at some of the others before she could stop herself. From her angle, all she could see here fantastic creatures she didn’t even have names for, but if all of them were like the one she just saw, Quistis had no interest in getting close enough to see what they were doing to their helpless victims. Her arms and legs tingled like they were reassuring themselves of still being attached and whole.

 

Seifer started walking again. Automatically Quistis kept pace with him, secretly glad that he was unflappable. Alone, she would have started walking again but definitely, definitely have been more unsettled. 

 

They exited the gallery. The next room was more properly a wide hallway and was thankfully free of gruesome artwork, but instead of candlelight, it was illuminated by flames in tall glass columns that glowed unnaturally green. Suits of armor lined the walls. They were different sizes, styles, and eras, but not arranged according to any system that Quistis could see and all the suits were damaged in some way. Some were melted through the chest. Others had been sheared in two and were displayed to that effect on custom-made stands. Some of them had bloody or burned tabards still tossed over them and Quistis shuddered when she recognized sigils of orders both past and present. Some even from the Holy Order of Eden, her own. What was she doing here?

 

An explosive clatter made Quistis whip around with a yell of combat readiness (alright, a scream), but it was not a witch sneaking up from behind. It was Seifer’s tail accidentally banging one of the suits’ legs off, and he pulled his tail up high like an affronted cat’s with what looked like a flush of embarrassment. 

 

“Stupid thing,” he muttered. Quistis was not sure if he was talking about the armor or his tail.

 

“Do you want the witch to catch us?” She hissed, fright making her sharp. 

 

“It’d save us some time,” Seifer retorted. Heading down the (trophy?) gallery, he said, “Why is it so quiet? She had a barrier spell above. She should have guards in these halls. But nothing.”

 

Quistis immediately looked at the suits of armor. Animating them to fight intruders seemed just like the sort of thing an evil witch would do, but the suits stayed still and thankfully not moving because of undead souls enslaved within them. Quistis would have slapped herself for having such a lurid imagination but it was very, very hard not to in the witch’s castle. Once again the urge to run away started to rise, but Quistis forced herself to go forward and once she started walking, the fear became controllable. This was not the first time she had ever been scared. And she had a dragon at her side, for goodness sakes! She would be fine, or at least in much better shape than she would have been trying to go after this witch alone.

 

_“This seems like an awful lot of power for a witch, though… All Mother could do was ward away monsters and rabid animals. She said she didn’t have a lot of power, but this still doesn’t seem usual at all.”_

 

When Seifer pushed open the next set of doors, Quistis braced for a new set of horrors but instead, there was a stone room beyond. There was nothing in it except a walkway that looked too narrow for Seifer to cross, or at least until he walking one foot in front of the other like a cat. The light in this room came through massive stained glass windows that were dazzling beyond anything Quistis had ever seen, and while their subject matter was strange—monsters, ancient gods—there were no veiled threats as to what the fate of an armed trespasser might be. Knowing a little of how stained glass windows were made caused Quistis to inspect the windows a little more closely and she shivered a bit when she saw that each piece of glass was fitted next to its neighbor without solder or frame. Only magic could have created them. 

 

_“We thought she’d burn all her power on keeping this place aloft, but she clearly has some to spare… Just how powerful is this witch?”_

 

A shuddering sound came through the air. Quistis froze in place, her skin going as cold as though she were naked despite her camouflaged tunic and adamantine mail. She stopped breathing, her ears aching like they could stretch to catch another noise. Seifer paused too, incredibly silent for such a big creature. Was it the witch? Was she coming for them now? Quistis immediately looked around the stone room, which was nowhere near bright even with the multiple windows, and the jewel-like colors of red, blue, and purple dappling the space were more confusing than plain old shadow would have been. Where was the witch? Where was she going to strike from? Quistis clenched the handle of her whip so hard that her knuckles cracked and the subtle pop nearly startled her into yelping. 

 

But then she heard the noise again. Louder and almost doubled, she recognized that it wasn’t a stealthy step or the brush of a long robe, but a sob. Two sobs. Looking down the narrow walkway they were on, Quistis saw what looked like the entrance to a mausoleum about ten feet down. There were no stairs to the doors, but Seifer solved that issue by stepping down like a flow of liquid silver and wordlessly holding his paw out. Quistis took hold of his claws and let him carry her down, just in time to hear more sobbing. At once Quistis’s resolve surged back. Her own fear was meaningless. She could kill and fight and if worse came to worst, run. Whoever was sobbing couldn’t. They needed help and they needed it now. 

 

Quistis pulled the doors to the mausoleum open, flinching a bit as a surge of cool air blew her hair back. At the end of a long, wide flight of stairs was a faint blue light, and it was from here that the sobbing came. It definitely sounded like multiple people. The missing girls. Quistis started walking down the steps and then remembered Seifer was behind her. Turning back to tell him to wait, she instead blinked when he flattened like a lizard and began creeping down after her. It looked a tight fit, but Seifer didn’t seem to care: in the low light, his eyes seemed particularly bright and green-blue and it was clear that he was determined not to let Quistis out of his sight. Twin surges of relief and fond exasperation made Quistis half-smile before she turned back down the stairs.

 

The blue light grew brighter the closer Quistis came, and the sound of sobbing grew louder too, mixed with soft wailing as the stairs leveled out. When she came up to the room where the light was coming from, Quistis first checked to make sure there was nothing dangerous inside before coming in and going straight to the three women who were imprisoned in glowing upright glass coffins. Peripherally Quistis was aware of Seifer snorting as he came into the room and noticed the women too, though when they saw him their sobbing instantly turned to screams of fright that echoed like the room’s tall vaulted ceiling.

 

“It’s alright!” Quistis spoke firmly but calmly over the cries, holding up her hands in a placating gesture. It was easier not to be scared when she had to be brave for other people. “He’s a friendly dragon. He’s with me. We’re here to kill the witch and get you all out.”

 

“You can’t,” wept one of the women. She looked older than Quistis’s mother, her face full of wrinkles and her long hair as white as snow. Incongruously her hair was braided up in a maidenly style, which first struck Quistis as odd and then ominous. “She’s too strong. You can’t kill her.”

 

“I will,” said Quistis, promising herself as much as the woman. “And I’ll get you out.”

 

“It doesn’t matter,” said another woman, making Quistis glance at her. She was sinking to the floor of her glass cage, the strength visibly leaving her body. “We’ll die anyway. It’s been too long.”

 

“How long have you been here?” 

 

“Years,” said the third, covering her face and rocking back and forth. “There used to be six of us. Then we started to die. One of us fell just now. It won’t be long for the rest of us. We get older every time we wake.”

 

“You should run while you can,” said the first woman, pointing at Quistis. Her eyes were huge with horrified conviction as she said, “She’ll catch you. She’ll make you take their places.”

 

“Like hell!” Seifer exhorted, but the only effect his words had was making the women scream again. 

 

“That won’t happen to me,” Quistis assured the captives, keeping her voice calm and strong. “I’ve got training and a dragon on my side.”

 

“That won’t matter to a sorceress,” said the second woman, shaking her head. “She’s too strong. She uses our strength to keep this castle floating so she doesn’t lose any of her own.”

 

“What?” Seifer demanded, his voice hollowing with shock.

 

“A sorceress?” Quistis repeated, her insides going numb. A witch was one thing, but a sorceress… Oh, sorceresses were another matter entirely. They were in a totally different class of power and knowledge, and no knight went up against one alone unless they wanted to die in horrible ways. Thank goodness most sorceresses were indifferent to humanity and could be flattered into helping people. The wicked ones took scores of knights to kill, or maybe just one very lucky hero. Things were odd like that. Quistis did not flatter herself into thinking _she_ was the hero, though. Even if she did have a dragon on her side and amazing armor. 

 

“She’ll catch you,” said the first woman, and her words were echoed by the second and third in a chilling chorus. 

 

“She’ll drain you,” said the second.

 

“And you’ll lie in a glass box like us until everything of you is gone,” said the third woman, pointing at one of the empty cases. Quistis looked automatically and clamped her jaw against a cry of horror as she saw an already drying, crumbling corpse inside the bottom of the box, falling to dust before her eyes. The poor woman had died with her eyes open and Quistis could not look away from the dull blue orbs until they completely dissolved.

 

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Seifer growled, making Quistis jump at the sound of his voice. She heard cracking stone and turned around to see him dragging up chunks of floor in a simmering temper, flames boiling around the sides of his mouth. “She’s not laying her filthy hands on you. You’re _mine._ I’ll rip her apart if she hurts you!”

 

“She won’t have the chance,” said Quistis, rallying. She sounded much braver than she felt. No small part of her was shaking in fear and wanted to run, not entirely away but at least for reinforcements. The doubts she’d had in the hall came thundering back now, along with a surge of anxious inadequacy—she couldn’t even kill a dragon that was all but baring his throat for her, so how could she kill a sorceress? One that stole and drained girls, enough girls to build that horrible hall of bones outside? Quistis started to feel faint with fear.

 

 _“It’s okay!”_ She heard Sir Loire saying in her head, his voice just as falsely bright as she felt. _“It’s okay to run, Quistis! Sometimes you’re not supposed to fight big battles in order to win.”_

 

Except that day, they’d been running from a winnable battle. It had been a pack of bandits and their half-wild dogs, and Quistis knew that between her, Sir Loire, and their chocobos, they could have taken the day. It would have been close, but they could have done it if Sir Loire hadn’t decided to run… Like always. And that made Quistis huff hard and plant her feet. Sure, she’d live if she ran but she never _ever_ wanted to be a knight like Sir Loire, not in that way. And she did not want to leave and come back to find another woman dead or another set of bones in the hall, either. As it was, she was already going to have nightmares about not coming soon enough. 

 

A gust of wind behind her made Quistis turn and her core went cold when she saw the woman hovering in the air before her. The captive women screamed again and collapsed like their legs had been cut out from underneath them, covering their faces and trembling madly in fear. Quistis barely noticed, so busy was she gaping at the sorceress. At once, the fact the halls and ceilings had been proportioned to accommodate Seifer made sense; the sorceress was hovering because she had huge blue-black wings that were at least as tall as she was, and really, who would walk when they could fly instead? Quistis clutched her whip, automatically sizing up the woman’s weak spots. The flashy red robe she wore exposed a lot of them, not that she seemed to care. In fact, she didn’t even seem to notice that Quistis was there at all. She was looking right at Seifer, who snarled at the sight of her and stepped forward to literally stand over Quistis. Her head just brushed under his chest, but she still had a good view of the sorceress above now glaring at Seifer with annoyance. 

 

“What are _you_ doing here?” The sorceress asked Seifer irritably. She sounded like a party host who’d had a pointedly uninvited guest turn up, and the familiarity made Quistis blink.

 

Seifer snorted. “I’m a dragon. I do what I want.”

 

“You’re as much a dragon as I am a songbird,” the sorceress retorted, putting her hands on her hips. “Wasn’t escaping with your life enough last time?”

 

“What?”

 

“Unless…” She looked at Quistis then, who raised her weapon. “You thought to bribe me? A good thought, but the timing is wrong. I’m well rested and I have three remaining power sources, so it’ll be at least another five or ten years before I’d be willing to accept a sacrifice.”

 

“What—“ Quistis sputtered, but the noise was lost in Seifer’s furious bellow.

 

“She’s not a bribe! She’s my hoard!”

 

“Oh dear, you hit the sea _particularly_ hard, didn’t you?” The sorceress seemed more amused by this than dismayed. “You actually think you’re a real dragon.”

 

“I _am_ a real dragon!”

 

“Of course you are,” she said patronizingly, and waved her hand in the air. Quistis and Seifer moved at the same time; her to throw her mailed arms up in front of her unguarded face and him to immediately sweep his paw between her and whatever magic the sorceress was throwing. But rather than a spell coming their way, the magic from the sorceress’s hand fell down into the air before Quistis and Seifer, and in a blink solidified into a flawless mirror. 

 

Quistis gaped. She could see Seifer’s paw in front of her, she could feel his presence looming over her head and the flames from his snarling jaws, but in the reflection of the mirror there was no dragon. There was Quistis herself, wearing sunset-colored adamantine mail and cringing from nonexistent impact. And behind her, his arm protectively between her and the sorceress, was a knight just about her age. He was fair skinned and tall, very handsome even with the furious look of savagery on his face. His hair was darker than Quistis’s but still gold enough to be blond, and his eyes were the piercing sea-blue-green that she had seen in a very different face. He had a scar tracing up between his eyes, as straight and neat as a razor cut, and still pink from being inflicted so recently. He wore silver armor with a white tabard, and the cross on on it and the cloak from his shoulders were a deep ruby red. He caught sight of himself and looked absolutely floored.

 

“What the _fuck,”_ Quistis heard from over her head, but in the mirror, the young man’s mouth made the same movements. She felt weak in the knees and not for fun reasons. What was going on?

 

“Ah, now I remember why I let you live,” said the sorceress with a chuckle. “It’s so rare that anyone interesting tries to kill me. And while it is amusing you haven’t learned anything in a hundred years, I’m too busy to deal with you today. So let’s keep you busy with a task of your own…”

 

Another gesture. A sudden drop in temperature made Quistis gasp and then scream as she felt the ground fall out from underneath her. She looked down and shrieked in unadulterated fear as she saw the floor vanishing to reveal the diamond-hard sea below, and Seifer roared as he clawed himself a foothold on the crumbling floor. His back half swung up like a cat’s did when they landed badly on a shelf; Quistis managed to land on his foot and immediately grabbed on like she was five years old and scrabbling for tree roots again, her mind totally filled with terror. As she hyperventilated with her eyes on the sea, she barely noticed the sorceress lazily swooping down and circling around her until the woman came close enough to brush her back and legs with the tips of her long wings. Quistis flinched away from the touches like they burned.

 

Suddenly the sorceress was right in front of her, nearly making Quistis lose her grip on Seifer’s leg out of fright. Up close, the woman was the definition of ‘intimidatingly beautiful’, a dreadful sort of perfection over her ageless face that was accented by her fearsome makeup. Her wings flapped lazily, far too slowly to actually hold her up in any physical way, and Quistis’s mouth went dry as she saw each long feather actually glimmering with power. She had always been outclassed and never truly realized it. 

 

“So he thinks you’re his hoard, does he?” said the sorceress, chuckling. She reached out with literal claws and though Quistis leaned back as far as possible, she still stroked the edge of Quistis’s cheek with a talon like a knife, saying, “Well, this will keep you both ‘busy’ indeed.”

 

“No—” Quistis gasped, but it was no use. Power beyond comprehension ripped her off Seifer’s leg and sent her hurtling through the air, screaming in terror. Invisible fire seemed to bloom over her body and then sink into it, making her scream again in pain, and above her she saw Seifer immediately let go of his support and drop after her, clapping his wings close to dive like a hunting hawk. Even from this distance she could see the piercing blue-green of his eyes lightening with fear. Instinctively she reached out but the tumbling air made her twist instead, spinning her sickeningly in the air. She heard Seifer shouting her name. 

 

“Go flat!” He bellowed. “Stick your arms and legs out! You’ll fall slower!”

 

_“I’m going to die, I’m going to die—”_

 

“Go flat, you idiot! Quistis—“ Seifer flapped his wings hard, putting on a burst of desperate speed.  “Damn it, let me catch you!”

 

 _“I’m going to die—“_ Quistis thought numbly as the world spun insanely around her. _“I’m going to die without ever doing anything that mattered—”_

 

The surge of wretched realization that came along with that thought would have made her cry, except for some reason it made her angry instead. Really, really angry. What had she been training for all this time? What had she worked so hard for and left her family for? What had she even pulled herself up those damn roots for?!

 

_“I’m not going to die like this. I won’t. I won’t!”_

 

She twisted, wrestling control of her limbs away from the greedy wind. The world tilted, swung, and spun about but at last Quistis managed to at least face Seifer and put her hands and legs out like he’d shouted for her to do. Her hair had escaped its twist and was fluttering madly in her face but she could hear her dragon coming closer, cutting the air around him. The first touch of his claws around her ribs and waist nearly made her cry with relief, but pain shocked through her instead and Seifer yelped, his grip momentarily loosening. 

 

“What the fuck!” He shouted again, and Quistis felt the fires surging back to the surface of her skin. The air around her seemed to turn to broken glass as she fell, burning with flames that seemed to eat away the inside of her. Unconsciously she clutched her arms, gasping for breath as her skin seemed to rip itself away from her muscles. A burst of pain on her back nearly made her pass out, followed by a dragging pain like her spine was ripping free from her skull. And her head was _splitting_ like an oak tree had suddenly sprung to life inside of it and was forcing her skull apart at the seams, which made Seifer’s roar of frustration shoot straight to her brain. He was still holding onto her but there was something wrong with his grip, like it was getting smaller for some reason, and she heard the wind change from a high-pitched sheeting to a lower, duller roar as he strained to hold both of them up. Why was he straining? Was he hurt too?

 

Impact knocked the air and all sensation from Quistis’s body, shocking her eyes open. She was on her back, staring up at the sky, and the ground underneath her was dry and firm. Half on top of her was Seifer, who seemed smaller for some reason and was making a deep-throated noise of pain and dissatisfaction. 

 

“That was _horrible,”_ he growled, pushing himself up. Quistis caught the white flash of his arm and for a moment though he had turned back into a knight; he was no longer far more massive than she was, but just about her size. A second later she saw his ruby wing sweep up over her vision and realized that no, he was still a dragon. He was just smaller for some reason. No wonder he’d been struggling to hold onto her. 

 

“I’m gonna kill that bitch,” Seifer raged, pulling himself up and twisting around to glare up at the castle in the sky, which was so far above that it looked like a kite at the end of a very long string that disappeared off the line of the horizon. “Ohhh yeah. I’m gonna bite her in half just hard enough to paralyze her, and then I’m gonna roast her alive as I swallow her whole. It will be _very_ painful.”

 

“At least we’re alive,” Quistis managed to get out. She tried to sit up, but as soon as she moved she knew something was wrong. Her vision changed, but her body wasn’t moving. It was like her eyes were independent of her head… Or her neck was much, much longer than she’d thought. Quistis abruptly found herself staring at the belly of a dragon, one that was rather foolishly flat on its back. Its scales were the orange-red-pink of a summer sunset, accented by dark brown ‘boots’ on the forelimbs and back legs. The claws gleamed like pure gold. And as Quistis moved reached to see where her whip had gone, not only did one of the dragon’s arms move, but so did a very long tail with a familiar set of barbs along the top of it and a golden blade at the end. Oh. OH. Quistis took a deep breath, trying to stop the horrifying panic before it began, but it was no use. It burst out of her in not a wail of dismay, not a scream, but a draconian roar of pure fury. 

 

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!”


	4. Semi-Horrible Revelations

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!”

 

 _“Oh,_ yes,” thought Seifer, utterly enchanted. He stared as the most gorgeous creature he had ever seen furiously struggled to her feet, fell over, and raged up onto her feet again. Even as Seifer jumped back to avoid the lash of her blade-tipped tail, he could not help but admire the sleekness of her well-toned limbs, the graceful fan of her wings, and how her bright white fangs flashed in the dying sunlight. Her scales were the most beautiful multicolored shades of rose and saffron, with accents of similarly rich brown scales shading her legs. Her claws, back ridges, and perfectly formed horns had the look and the deep richness of pure gold. As she glared balefully at herself with eyes bluer than sapphires, Seifer very nearly sighed because Quistis as a dragon was somehow even more exciting than she had been as a human. And there was something else too. As a human, Seifer had admired her physical attributes the same way he’d admire a gem, but as a _dragon…_ Oh. Oh, there was such a pounding in his chest! Such an intense desire that was more overwhelming than hunger and homicidal fury combined! Just like he’d felt when he’d seen Quistis for the first time, his every scale and muscle seemed to come alive with recognition, but now there a certain base physicality that shook him to his core. It was like every bit of who she was and how she looked had been _made_ for him…!

 

…wait a minute.

 

Seifer’s claws still tingled from whatever kind of weird magic that had been cast on Quistis. Something had pulled out his body and brain like the outgoing tide and the longer Seifer looked at Quistis (and did not get distracted by how perfect she was), he realized suspiciously that she was perhaps just a little too beautiful. A little too striking. A little too irresistible. 

 

“ ‘This’ll keep you busy’, _she said. Bitch! That magic literally made Quistis into my dream girl! Fuck! Do I actually feel like this or did she enchant me again to keep me out of her business?”_

 

That was the other thing. A huge other thing that unfortunately made too much sense. Seifer knew he was about a hundred years old because that was all he could remember, but what he couldn’t remember was anything about being a young dragon. He remembered no parents, no siblings, no home cave or anything like that. In fact, his memories started with lying exhausted on the gravelly beach outside Fujin and Raijin’s cave while the two of them hovered over him and checked his vitals with their long whiskers. They had told him they’d found him swimming in the ocean and Seifer had always assumed something had attacked him from midair, probably another dragon. It wasn’t unusual for dragons of his sort to fight over territory, and a severe injury would explain why he’d woken up weak, disoriented, and unable to fly and breathe fire without Fujin and Raijin’s patient help. But what Seifer had seen in the castle had rattled him. The reflection of the knight in the mirror, the one with the red cloak and the blue-green eyes… Something in his soul had resonated with that. Something inside him that felt like he wasn’t truly a dragon no matter what kind of cave he found, no matter how well he flew and how much fire he breathed, or what kind of hoard he had. And that…

 

“This is all YOUR fault!”

 

“What?” Seifer looked at Quistis in shock. “What are you talking about?”

 

“This!” She gestured furiously at herself. Unfortunately she did it with both front legs at the same time and thus unbalanced, fell onto her chest on the sandy cape. Pushing herself up, she raged, “Why did you take me up there?!”

 

“Because I thought you could handle it!” He shot back. “Obviously I was wrong! Anyway, it’s your fault you believed me!”

 

“You gave me armor! You told me you’d protect me from magic!”

 

“But you still had to be capable first!” Seifer retorted, though the last thing stung more than he wanted to admit. “And if you _knew_ you weren’t up to it, you should have said no! If you’re looking for someone to blame, look in a mirror!”

 

Quistis shrieked. It was a multitoned roar that swelled and belled from her long neck, and Seifer was almost too distracted by the impressive volume and sheer fury to realize she was charging at him. But… Not very well. She was running like a human on just her back legs and smashed into the sand again, this time ending up halfway in the water. Seifer backed up and since she didn’t look like she was going to get the hang of moving any time soon, sat down and curled his paws underneath. 

 

“Look,” he said, trying to be calm and reasonable as Quistis pushed herself back to her feet. “So you’re a dragon now. It’s not so bad, and I’m speaking from experience.”

 

“Did you know you were human?!”

 

“…Well, no—”

 

“Then you don’t know the difference!” Quistis shouted back. Stamping her front feet on the ground, she snarled, “I do! This is _not_ who I am! This is _not_ what I’ve worked for!”

 

“But it’s who you are now—”

 

“But it’s not who I want to be!” Her voice trailed up in a wail of growing anguish. “I want to be _me_ again!”

 

“You’re still you! Just better.” When Quistis glared at him, Seifer pointed out, “You’re stronger and deadlier now. You’re basically immune to magic. You’ll never be without armor or your weapon. And I’ll teach you how to fly and flame—”

 

She screamed at him again. Except this time it wasn’t just a scream, it was a glow in her mouth that made Seifer’s skin go cold, and he took off into the air just in time as what looked like a sunbeam blasted shot out of her fangs, except no sunbeam burned sand into molten glass. Seifer boggled. What the hell was that? Even  _he_ couldn't do that unless he was trying to.

 

And then, if that wasn’t shocking enough, Quistis crouched and sprang up into the air four-footed like he did. At the apex of her jump, her wings flexed with a powerful, masterful swoop and all of a sudden she was _flying_ at him.

 

“Shit!” 

 

Seifer took off at once. He was beyond astonished she was able to do something he remembered taking months for him to master, and admiration warred with the realization that she was actually trying to hurt him. Flying hard and fast, Seifer figured that Quistis would be much easier to talk to once she’d burned the rampage out of her system. He knew quite well how overpowering a sudden surge of rage could be and how there was nothing to do about it but scream and destroy until all one’s strength was gone. 

 

Of course… There was also Fujin and Raijin’s method… Which was annoying as hell but definitely effective… 

 

A blast of weaponized sunlight went streaking past Seifer’s body, right underneath his wing, and Seifer rolled midair to see Quistis charging up for another shot, her blue eyes starting to turn red. Oh, she was beyond furious. She was mindless with rage, absolutely uncontrollable, and as magnificent as she currently was, Seifer did not want to be lamed or killed by her misguided anger. So he backwinged to stall in the air, and as Quistis barreled by him, he sank all four feet with claws out into her back and forced her into a headfirst dive. During the times Seifer had lost control of his temper, Fujin and Raijin would shove him into the water and hold him down until he nearly drowned; since they could breathe as easily in the water as in the air, this was as easy as coiling around him like a snake and then rolling into the sea. No doubt the same method would work for Quistis, with some modifications. She was smaller and leaner than he was and changing her trajectory was as easy as tilting forward, especially since with him sitting on her back, she had limited control over her wings. She could, however, still whip around to scream at him and Seifer hastily bit her on the neck just below the base of her skull so she couldn’t fry him point-blank.

 

“LET GO!” She shrilled as they started falling.

 

“Nuh-uh!”

 

Quistis threw herself into an uncontrolled roll but it was nothing Seifer couldn’t handle. Flaring his wings, he curled them in a very particular way and the roll turned into a rapid spin that made the world turn into a solid blur. Quistis struggled but apparently she still got airsick even as a dragon, and as soon as she started to go limp Seifer straightened his wings out and pulled back. The effort nearly wrenched his wings from their sockets, but he leveled out their headfirst dive before they hit the water and managed to go into a low glide with Quistis hanging as limply as a drowned kitten in his grasp. By chance they were near Fujin and Raijin’s cave, and though the effort of hauling Quistis’s unresisting weight through the air was the most exhausting thing Seifer could ever remember doing, he did it anyway. She had suffered a horrible shock. She was also exhausted from rampaging. Once she had calmed down and had a good sleep, she would see how wonderful it was to be a dragon. 

 

Though killing the sorceress was definitely, definitely still on the table.

 

For the second time that day, Seifer set down on the rocky beach outside Fujin and Raijin’s cave. This time, however, they were both waiting for him and eyed Quistis with a certain knowing look that made Seifer realize they knew exactly what had happened. 

 

“STUPID,” said Fujin, looking at Seifer. He bristled, temper loosening his fatigued muscles. 

 

“Stupid?!”

 

“Yeah!” Raijin exhorted, carrying the fish over to Quistis. With a baffled look that was not quite a glare, he demanded, “What were you thinking, Seifer? Why’d you go up against a sorceress?”

 

“We thought she was a witch,” said Seifer, looking at Quistis. She looked so miserable and utterly defeated. It dismayed and irritated him in equal measure. “And then _this_ happened.”

 

“DRAGON FETISH.”

 

“Seems like!” Raijin nudged the tuna towards Quistis again, softening his voice to cajole her. “Come on, you smell really hungry. You’ll feel better when you eat.”

 

“No…” She sounded the definition of dejected. The sorceress might as well have shot her in the heart from the sound of her voice.

 

“They’re super fresh, ya know? And tuna’s real tasty.”

 

“No…” 

 

Fujin came over to Quistis and studied her for a moment. Then to Seifer’s surprise, she spoke carefully and calmly in perfectly correct Western Dragon. 

 

“You can’t turn back into a human unless you’re alive. So eat.”

 

Quistis sniffed, but met Fujin’s calm gaze with a slightly guilty one. Was she really that upset about being a dragon? Seifer couldn’t relate. Nevertheless his heart eased when Quistis lifted her head, looked at the nearly spherical tuna Raijin had brought over to her, and gingerly took a bite of it. At first she cringed but then her eyes widened in surprise and then she took another bite, a much bigger one.

 

“It’s good, right?” Raijin asked, unnecessarily, as Quistis started eating the tuna with growing alacrity. 

 

“BEGINNER FISH,” said Fujin, settling down on her belly to watch Quistis eat with maternal interest. Seifer looked at Fujin and Raijin with mixed feelings, namely gratitude that they were treating Quistis so well and suspicion as to why they were out in the first place.

 

“How did you know we were coming?”

 

“We felt it when you crossed the territory again,” said Raijin, nodding upwards at the invisible, intangible boundary that marked his and Fujin’s lands. “And when we came out, we saw you getting chased by a dragon the color of the adamantine mail we gave you. So we figured something had happened and we should probably see if you needed help. We almost came over when you two went into that dive, but you know… You didn’t ask.”

 

Seifer grumbled but couldn’t think of what else to say. In the past, he had gotten awfully mad about Fujin and Raijin offering unsolicited aid, taking their assistance and concern as insults to his competence. He was better about it now, but not by much.

 

In a very short time Quistis was done with both fish. She looked less tired, but still far from happy, and Seifer looked at Quistis with banked longing as she stood up and started brushing sand from her arms and chest. Even those simple motions highlighted the lovely symmetry of her form and to stop from acting like a fool, Seifer asked, “Feeling better?”

 

“No,” she said shortly. “But I’ll live. There has to be a way to turn back into a human. There’s a good sorceress associated with the Order, but the problem is that she’s surrounded by knights and they might not let us through…”

 

“You don’t need a sorceress to turn back,” said Raijin, confused. 

 

“A sorceress did that to her, so yeah, she’ll need one,” said Seifer, not sure why his old friend had lost his mind.

 

“WON’T,” said Fujin, pointing at Quistis with her whiskers. “BLUE MAGE.”

 

“Blue what?”

 

“She’s a blue mage, Seifer,” said Raijin, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Didn’t you ever wonder why she could talk to us and understand us when she was a human? Normal humans don’t understand dragons.”

 

Seifer opened his mouth to object, but then paused. It was true that he’d never had a conversation with a human before, but that was because all Seifer's human interactions ended with the humans screaming and fleeing in terror. Mulling over the meetings with the villagers and the captive women, he realized that they’d never once talked to him even though he’d spoken to them. They had always responded to Quistis. And sure, the sorceress had been able to talk to him, but then again she was a _sorceress_ and that seemed like the kind of thing that would be completely in her wheelhouse. Hmm. 

 

“What’s a blue mage?” Quistis asked, making the Far Eastern dragons look at her. “My mother said we had magic in the family, but not what kind.”

 

“Oh, well…” Raijin was nonplussed. Then again, Far Eastern dragons were huge about family history and lineage, so he had probably never realized that there were people in the world who just didn’t know about their own barring accident or tragedy. In any case he rallied and said, “They’re a special kind of human. They can talk to all kinds of magical beings, they can tame any kind of beast, and some of them are shapeshifters too, which is why you shouldn’t need help turning back from a magical shape.”

 

 _Shapeshifters._ No wonder Quistis had taken to being a dragon so easily in her total rage. Knowing she had a blood-related advantage put a bit more wind back into Seifer’s winds about him needing months to learn the same thing.

 

“IGNORANCE,” said Fujin, shaking her head. “CONFUSION.”

 

“Right,” said Raijin, nodding. “You didn’t even know what you were, so how could you know how to turn back?”

 

“Where do they live?” Seifer asked as Quistis started to flush deeper scarlet and saffron with hope. 

 

“Too far to fly today,” said Raijin, nodding at the setting sun. “We’ll all go tomorrow.”

 

“Why all of us?”

 

“Because they live in marshes and you don’t do so good with water, ya know?” 

 

“ADVENTURE,” said Fujin. “HOARD.”

 

“Yeah, we want more stuff.”

 

Seifer huffed. If he’d been alone, he would have flown at night with no qualms and few directions, but one glance at Quistis told him she was not up to the trip. He wasn’t even sure if she could fly if she wasn’t too furious to think, especially when he saw her awkwardly flexing her wings one at a time. She glanced at him and immediately looked away, the webs of her wings turning a deeper gold color. Was she angry at him still? Or maybe…

 

“I’m sorry I treated you so badly. I know it’s not actually your fault…”

 

Oh. She was embarrassed. Seifer shelved his disappointment and shrugged. 

 

“Rampages happen,” he said diplomatically. “Besides, anyone would be shocked.”

 

She nodded, wings drooping. Seifer first thought she was embarrassed, but then she yawned and he realized she was tired instead. Of course. They’d been running to and fro all day and she’d been getting horrifically nauseous left and right. 

 

“Come in and sleep,” said Raijin, touching Quistis on the horns with one whisker. “And eat some more too. I’ve got lots of stuff inside, ya know.”

 

Seifer had to bite his tongue. A surge of unseemly hostility rose in his chest as at the sight of Raijin touching the dragoness of Seifer’s dreams, but when Seifer looked at Fujin, she seemed totally unconcerned. And her steadiness calmed him down. Besides, this was Raijin, who was so goodhearted that as a human, he’d probably be dead before adulthood from believing in people too much.

 

“YOU TOO,” said Fujin, eyeing Seifer. “TIRED.”

 

“What?” Seifer puffed his chest even as his muscles protested at the mild motion. “I’m fine. I could do this all day.”

 

“STUPID,” she said, clearly not fooled. “IN. EAT. REST.”

 

“Fine, if it’ll make you stop nagging.”

 

Unlike many dragons, Fujin and Raijin believed in keeping a well-stocked larder instead of hunting every week, so there were plenty of things for Seifer and Quistis to sink their teeth into. Granted, it was mostly fish, but shark, various mollusks, and even some seaweeds added variety and flavor to an otherwise one-note palate. Seifer had his favorites but Quistis ate whatever was put in front of her with a kind of dullness that made Seifer concerned. At least when she had been raging and trying to hurt him he’d known what she was thinking, but queries to her mental state were met with terse replies of “I’m fine” and silence. So Seifer stopped asking. She might be more talkative tomorrow. It wasn’t like him at all to worry, but he couldn’t help keeping an eye on Quistis as she eventually started to slow down and then pick at the salmon she’d taken down to the bones. Fujin and Raijin came back just then, though Seifer was not sure when they had left. He’d been too busy watching Quistis.

 

“FOLLOW,” said Fujin to Quistis. “SLEEP.”

 

“Where’s she sleeping?” Seifer asked, half-rising to his feet as soon as Quistis got to hers. 

 

“We cleared out a treasure cave,” said Raijin, settling himself at the pile of fish and hooking one claw in a large sturgeon. Pulling it to himself as the dragonesses left, he said, “It’ll do for now. And Fujin lit some incense in there to help her sleep.”

 

“Nice of her.”

 

“Well it’s not every day that a human gets turned into a dragon, ya know,” said Raijin, filleting the sturgeon meat from the thick bony skeleton. “She’ll probably wake up feeling sick or something.”

 

“Speaking from experience?” Seifer asked flatly, and when Raijin looked at him strangely, Seifer clarified, “Was _I_ like that when you two found me?”

 

“Was… Oh.” Raijin looked at Seifer more closely and then chuckled. He _chuckled._ “So you used to be human. That explains a lot.”

 

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”

 

Raijin started filleting the sturgeon into smaller pieces, neatly separating nearly invisible sections of darker and lighter meat from each other. “We knew something was weird about you. We found you swimming in the ocean because you couldn’t remember how to fly, and you don’t look like a normal Western dragon either. You’re too shiny. And your eyes are blue. No born dragon has blue eyes. But we thought you were an ascended sea serpent or a fish, not a human.”

 

Had Raijin lost his mind? “Why the hell does me being a snake or a fish that make more sense?”

 

“I was a snake,” said Raijin matter-of-factly, making Seifer stare. “Fujin started off as a carp. We thought Western dragons did the same thing until we found out they’re born from eggs like birds, but it’s not like there aren’t really old sea serpents that might decide they like the skies better than the seas, ya know? We figured that was what you were, except you hit your head or something and didn’t remember what you used to be.”

 

 _“You hit the sea_ particularly _hard, didn’t you?”_ Came the memory of the sorceress’s mocking voice.

 

“But now that explains why you had to be taught to fly and flame,” mused Raijin, now starting to eat the sturgeon. “That’s supposed to be instinct for Western dragons and no whack on the head should have knocked that knowledge out of it.”

 

“You should have told me I wasn’t a real dragon.”

 

“Seifer, you _are_ a real dragon,” said Raijin with a bit of a sigh. “You’ve been living as one for a hundred years. And you’re just as proud and fierce as a Western cousin. If anything, this was what you were all along, you were just stuck in a human skin for a while.”

 

Seifer huffed, not sure if he was pleased or irritated at Raijin’s assessment. “You still should have told me.”

 

“WHY?” Fujin asked, coming back into the cave. 

 

“Because even if I didn’t remember, it’s still my life,” Seifer said, glaring at her. “You had no right to keep it from me.”

 

Raijin looked at him, somewhat baffled. “We didn’t keep anything from you, Seifer. You’re the one who never told _us_ anything.”

 

“Because I didn’t remember!”

 

“Yeah, so what was there to keep?”

 

Fujin looked at Seifer thoughtfully and asked, “If we had told you that you weren't a dragon, would you have believed us?”

 

Seifer opened his mouth but the automatic assertion died halfway up his throat. He looked down at his front paws, trying to imagine hands instead. He tried to think what it might be like to look around with a shorter neck, to be vulnerable to any change in warmth or cold, and how he’d never know what it was like to fly and flame. Seifer tried to think about what such a blunted, short, weak little sort of life he had been born with and couldn’t recall a single detail. He couldn’t even muster up any objective appeal why humanity might be better, not when he loved every second of being a dragon. If Fujin and Raijin had told him he wasn’t one…

 

“Maybe not… But you still should have said something!”

 

“Such as what?” Fujin asked, not annoyed, just curious. “And when? You are over a hundred years old now. Everything in your human life is gone. so there is nothing waiting for you if you return to a man’s shape. Being a dragon is much better for you.”

 

Seifer wanted to disagree, except he couldn’t. And the more he tried to justify his temper to himself, the more his reasons fell apart. There was something that felt so childish and stupid about insisting, “ _But it does matter”_ when nothing in his life was influenced by his past humanity at all. Not that he could tell, anyway. Plus, this was Fujin and Raijin. They had watched over him. They had fed him when he’d been weak and pulled him out of the sea over hundreds of disastrous attempts at flight. They were the closest thing to family he had and it wasn’t like he couldn’t see the sense in what they were saying. In their skins, faced with a dazed maybe-not-a-dragon who didn’t remember being anything but, what would be the point of stressing him out? Why infect someone with a sense of unease for no reason and with no evidence?

 

“REGRETS?”

 

“Yeah, you wanna turn back into a human?” Raijin asked, cocking his head. “We’ll help you if you want, but you’ll die a lot faster that way. You've got sixty years at best, _maybe_ eighty or ninety if you live like a monk.”

 

Seifer bristled, wings flaring and tail lifting off the ground. The idea of giving up any of what he was made his temper shoot to the sky. “Hell no! I’m fine as I am.”

 

“SETTLED,” said Fujin, sitting down by the fish and selecting a plump young salmon. Seifer wasn’t sure he agreed, but he wasn’t sure what else he could do. So after a bit more of grumpy eating, he left Fujin and Raijin to their dinner and went to go to sleep. 

 

His old sleeping cave was down one of the longer tunnels and had not yet been converted into treasure storage. Along the wall in rough, clawed-out shelves were little trinkets Seifer had collected over the years, things that had caught his eye and inspired what he’d mistaken for hoard-lust. He’d meant to transfer them once he had a place of his own. Now he looked at the opalized shells, the fossilized corals, and lumps of ambergris with annoyance, because his desire for these objects seemed empty in light of his discovery. If he hadn’t been born a dragon, no wonder none of these had inspired any real feelings. Was that why he had gravitated toward Quistis? Did some part of him remember being human, and pushed him towards recapturing any part of that state that he could? If that was true, what did that mean about their relationship now? Seifer thought about Quistis and all at once, a great rush of heat fanned out from his chest into his stomach and wings. It was like hoard-longing, but not. No less intense, but somehow more comprehensive. He still wanted her and valued her above everything he could think of, but their relationship was now changed by the fact that she was the loveliest dragoness he had ever seen and thoughts he never would have entertained had she stayed human now infected his brain. Quistis would never be _just_ a hoard anymore. 

 

Restless with too many discomforts to name, Seifer curled up and shut his eyes. The problems would still be there when he woke up. He might as well have the strength to face them in the morning. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I REALLY wanted to make Fujin and Raijin East Asian dragons so I could go into a bit of Chinese-inspired dragon lore. 
> 
> So the way I was taught as a child, the longer an animal lives, the greater chance it has of becoming intelligent. With intelligence comes a desire for longevity and sometimes enlightenment, and after many years of study (centuries? Mom never clarified), certain animals can become dragons. Two of these animals are carp (the Japanese say 'koi' instead, but a koi is a specific kind of carp and 'carp' is what my dad told me, so there) and snakes (specifically a kind of big white magical snake called an imugi in Korean tradition). Once the animals reach enlightenment, they turn into dragons. But enlightenment isn't an everlasting state, so you can definitely have mean dragons, greedy dragons, and selfish dragons. Nevertheless on the whole, the East Asian dragon is more calm and aloof than the Western counterpart; they are said to control storms and rivers and the oceans, and are above small mortal concerns like forces of nature should be. And East Asian dragons can be appealed to for help and wisdom in the right circumstances and if they are in the right mood. So it seemed like a very good fit for Fujin and Raijin in this story.


	5. Qus

Rather reluctantly Quistis had to admit there were some upsides to being a dragon.

 

As a human, her feet were usually very cold when it was time to sleep, but as a dragon Quistis was able to curl up in such a way that she could put her paws against her chest and stomach, and that combined with the tent of her wings made for very comfortable, warm sleeping. And another thing was that sleeping on the bare ground did not bother her at all. In fact, it was pleasantly firm like a good-quality mattress. And when she woke up and stretched the kinks out of her new odd arrangement of limbs, an indescribable feeling of vitality and power filled her body with every motion, boosting her confidence to a ridiculous degree. She felt like she could take on anything despite not having been a dragon for very long; it was amazing what a full stomach and a solid night’s rest could do. Now Quistis had more energy than she could remember in a while, as well as a certain perspective. Yesterday had been an unimaginable setback, but far from a defeat. Today they were going to visit the blue mages, who were possibly her distant relatives, and figure out a way to become human again. 

 

_“I wonder if Mother could do this… Or if any of my sibs could. I left when I was so young and there were so many of us that I’m sure I didn’t learn everything about my family…”_

 

She honestly hadn’t thought of her family in years. Their village was remote and practically everyone was illiterate, so sending letters back and forth was impossible. The best Quistis could manage was asking peddlers and caravans to reassure her parents she was fine if they ever passed that way, but no message had ever come to her through that loose network. And honestly, she wasn’t sure if any of hers had been received either. It had always been her intention to go back home and show them all what she had become… Though if she went as a dragon, undoubtedly there would be screaming and fainting and pitchforks coming out. Quistis sighed moodily, her spirits falling as she went down the corridor and into the main cave. Fortunately an interesting, appetizing smell distracted her before she could feel too sorry for herself.

 

“MORNING,” said Fujin, nodding at her as she entered. The main cave smelled deliciously of mussels and wine with fragrant curls of alderwood smoke making curlicues along the ceiling. Raijin and Seifer were there too, and though Raijin was closer Quistis barely noticed him. Instead her attention went straight to Seifer… And stayed there.

 

She knew objectively that Seifer was a strong dragon. But what she hadn’t realized was that he was actually quite handsome, or at least attractive to her new brain. His neck was long and strong, his chest broad and powerful to support large, well-formed wings. The mercury-like ripple of his scales were shinier than even the best-polished plate armor but saved from overwhelming brilliance with the cutwork of silvery scars she’d noticed before, all of it emphasizing how powerful and fit he was. His scarlet claws, horns, and wing webs were not merely red, but tipped with orange and purple she had not been able to see before. And when he looked at her, the sight of his piercing blue-green eyes seemed to shoot through her surprise and turn her insides to warm jelly. Oh, wow…

 

What the _hell._

 

_“Well, he was a handsome man in the mirror, so I suppose…”_

 

No. No no no! She was a HUMAN. He was a DRAGON (sort of). And there was BUSINESS to attend to, and she had no time—!

 

“Morning,” said Seifer, and even his voice sounded different; warmer and more intimate than it had when she’d been a human, and there was something like a gleam in his look that made the pounding in Quistis’s chest start to spread throughout her entire body. Oh no. Oh no. Quistis had always been too busy to fool around with anyone, but she knew what this was and did not like it one bit. 

 

“Good morning,” she said formally. She tried not to be distracted by the way Seifer was lounging on his side, tigerlike and full of confidence. Now envy infiltrated her unseemly surge of attraction; she was not nearly so sure of herself, especially not now. Walking into the main cave, she looked at the mussels everyone was eating. They were the biggest she had ever seen, probably at least as long as her hand when she’d been a human, and they had been smoked and steamed in wine. 

 

“Good morning!” said Raijin, waving his whiskers at Quistis. “How are you feeling?”

 

“EAT,” said Fujin, pointing at the mussels with her claws.

 

“I’m feeling better, thank you,” said Quistis, sitting down near the pile. Unlike some of the things she’d eaten yesterday, mussels were a familiar and comforting food; she’d gathered freshwater ones from the riverbanks around her village with her siblings before leaving home. They’d always been good then, but the smoked ones smelled absolutely divine now. 

 

“You still want to turn human?” Seifer asked, a hint of scorn in his voice. Quistis pretended not to notice it. 

 

“I want to be myself again, so yes.”

 

Seifer looked annoyed about that but said nothing. He did, however, curl his paws underneath his chest in what seemed like a grumpy kind of way.

 

“Good,” said Raijin to Quistis, nodding. “We’ll head off as soon as you’ve eaten then. Stuff yourself, it’s going to be a long flight.”

 

“Flight?” Quistis looked at Fujin and Raijin in surprise. Neither of them had wings. 

 

“Don’t think about it too hard,” said Seifer, picking up a mussel and tossing it into his mouth without barely a look. It was an impressive feat of coordination, but Quistis did not try to mimic it. She was still getting used to her head being so far away from her hands and she had the feeling that if she tried to do what Seifer had done, she’d end up throwing the mussel into her chest. Or her nose. Or over her shoulder. 

 

“I think we’ll make it there by the end of the day,” said Raijin, taking two mussels at a time and slurping them down. “Though I don’t know how they’ll turn you human. If they can.”

 

If? Quistis’s stomach chilled. She did not want to be stuck as a dragon one bit. Even in the fits of temper yesterday she’d had meant everything she’d said to Seifer, except for the accusations of complicity. It wasn’t like he’d had all the information either. She looked at him, wondering if he’d given any thought to his origins, and then had to look away when he met her gaze and sent a little ripple of heat pounding through her chest. Stupid feelings! Where were they even coming from? So he was good looking. Incredibly good looking. That was just how he was made and nothing more redeeming than that. 

 

After stuffing themselves full of smoked mussels, they left the cave. Fujin and Raijin took off first, wriggling through the air like snakes and moving just as quickly. Seifer lifted his wings and looked at Quistis expectantly. 

 

“Well?”

 

“Oh.” Quistis gulped. She was not at all sure of how to fly. Yesterday she had been so furious that she’d been utterly consumed with _“kill, kill, kill”_ and flying had come as an afterthought, as had the blasts of not-fire from her throat. The total lack of control was incredibly embarrassing now, and there was no explaining it away on an empty stomach or the extreme circumstances. 

 

_“I have to turn back into a human as fast as possible. The longer I stay in this shape, the more I might lose my temper… Or myself.”_

 

Still, she had to make the most of this shape while she had it. Quistis willed her wings to rise and they did, sort of like when she tried to wiggle her ears as a human. So that was that.

 

“Follow me,” said Seifer, crouching. He took off four-footed and straight up into the air again, flapping hard at the peak of his leap and flicking his tail at the same time to surge forward. Quistis observed as much as she was able, but her muscles seemed to lock when it was time for her to do the same thing. What if she fell? What if she smashed herself into the cliff above the cave? And what if she was still afraid of heights?

 

“What are you doing?” Seifer shouted from up above, whirling down in a huge circle to sweep in front of her. “Come on!”

 

“I’m…” Quistis shook her head. There was no point to expressing her doubts right now. Either she could fly, or she couldn’t. “I’m coming!”

 

So she crouched. She tucked her tail like Seifer had. She raised her wings. And as Seifer flapped to go in another circle around, Quistis jumped as hard as she could and her upward rush slowed to become weightless, she visualized flapping her wings. Pressure immediately pulled along her back and sides, hard but not unpleasant, and to her surprise she actually went up a little in the air. Encouraged, she flapped again, but it was harder this time and the time after. Her triumphant height started to dip a little. And then she started to fall. 

 

“Kick off!” Seifer shouted, flicking his tail. “Go forward! It’s easier!”

 

“I’m falling!” 

 

“Yeah! Control it!”

 

Control it? _Control it?_ Was he crazy? Quistis flapped again but still fell and desperately she started kicking out with legs and tail like she could climb the air. The ground was too far below again and the cliff was too far away to grab onto. She was going to fall. And it was going to hurt so much, maybe even break her fragile-looking wing bones…

 

Her claws abruptly sank into flesh. Quistis jumped as Fujin and Raijin appeared under her forelimbs and with their wriggly up-and-down motion, carried her into the air. Seifer tsked as he wheeled closer. 

 

“She’s not gonna learn that way!” 

 

“You learned this way!” Raijin returned jovially.

 

“HEIGHT,” agreed Fujin. Seifer growled but flapped to go in another wide wheeling circle around them. Seeing his ease in the air made Quistis acutely embarrassed, especially since her claws were digging into Fujin and Raijin’s fleshy brows in what looked like a painful way. Neither of them seemed to care, though. It was like the tops of their heads were nothing but fat. 

 

“HERE,” said Fujin after a short while, and the ascent leveled out. 

 

“Stick your wings out and lock ‘em,” said Raijin. “You’ve seen hawks, right? They just glide forever, ya know? Do the same thing.”

 

Quistis pushed her wings out. She winced at the sound of the wind surging over the webs in her wings, making a loud flapping noise that seemed both rude and unstable. 

 

“Tilt your wings!” Seifer shouted from disconcertingly nearby, and Quistis immediately looked up to see him gliding effortlessly overhead. _His_ wing webs weren’t flapping like like loose flags. Quistis tried to tilt them but had absolutely no idea what even to move, and meanwhile the flapping just got louder and louder.  Then without warning, Fujin and Raijin dropped out from under her paws. Quistis shrieked, unconsciously throwing her wings straight up in panic. She fell like a stone. Immediately the three experienced dragons dove for her, Seifer arrowing down with wings and legs tucked tight and Fujin and Raijin coiling up like springs to explode forward. Their speed would have taken Quistis’s breath away if she hadn’t been screaming in terror. 

 

“Sorry, sorry,” said Raijin, catching her under her front forelimb again. “We figured instinct’d take over, ya know?”

 

“AGAIN,” said Fujin as she caught Quistis’s other side, and they started to wend back up into the air. Quistis felt like throwing up. This was way worse than just being carried because at least Seifer had never dropped her. Now she knew it was coming and her stomach was clenching, her skin was clammy, her joints locking up out of fear…

 

“Hey Quistis!” Seifer zoomed underneath her and cheekily flipped onto his back to look right at her. “You’re _awful_ at this!”

 

“Thank you!” She retorted angrily. “I know!”

 

“No, really! You’re _horrible!_ ”

 

“I know!”

 

“You’re worse at this than being a knight!”

 

Quistis gritted her teeth. Fujin and Raijin exchanged glances but kept climbing. 

 

“Except you’re not even a knight yet, you’re just a squire who makes bad decisions.” Seifer managed to stay just about one body length underneath her, infuriating with his total confidence. “Heck, _I_ got my shield and I don’t even remember how!”

 

“Are you trying to make me angry?” She snapped at him, too furious to pay much attention to the tiny landscape underneath him.

 

“Nah, I’m just telling the truth. If failure makes you angry, that’s your problem.”

 

“No, it’s _yours,”_ Quistis snapped, flinging her wings up again. Fujin and Raijin dropped away as she fell, leaving her a clear path to drop down and hit Seifer in his stupid chest feet-first. But the instant he saw her coming, he laughed and rolled over, speeding away with tracks of errant clouds trailing from his wingtips. Something about the look of his wings from this angle made something click in Quistis’s head and she straightened her wings and rolled them forward, barely noticing when the flapping that had so disturbed her before instantly vanished. She sped after Seifer like they were on sleds down an icy slope, pulling her front legs to her chest and stretching her back ones out to lie along her tail to go down like an otter. She was going to catch him if it was the last thing she did!

 

The wind rushing under her now taut wings pushed her up away from the ground, making Quistis rise and fall through invisible peaks and valleys of air. Seifer remained just ahead, close enough to taunt and insult her but never near enough to catch. He was a swift and sure flyer, as well as one hell of a showoff; whenever Quistis thought she might close the distance, he would wheel or loop or dive so fast that she barely saw him, and then laugh when she struggled to catch up. Yet the distance did close as time went on, and enjoyment began to edge out Quistis’s irritation. A long muzzle kept the breath inside her nose and throat and she was far warmer in scales than she’d been in mail and cotton: in fact, she was aware of the wind as pressure instead of any kind of temperature. Her head remained steady even as her body swung up and down with the force of flight, so there was no disorientation or nausea. The ground was still far below, but she was so focused on catching Seifer that she didn’t notice at all even when she dropped or tilted into turns. 

 

The real breakthrough came when Quistis managed to get right behind Seifer and suddenly felt the air become less hard against her wings. Seifer kept flying, confident in his speed, and meanwhile Quistis edged closer and closer. When he tipped over an invisible mountain of air, Quistis finally got close enough to touch him and did so—by biting the end of his tail. It was not a hard bite, more of a nip, but she wasn’t close enough to jump on his back or even grab him with her front claws, so a bite it was. It seemed very natural to do. 

 

It was also the last thing Seifer expected. Immediately he yelped and whipped into a tight spin that both flung Quistis off and sent her spinning uncontrollably. She flapped her wings hard, panic surging up, but then remembered how Seifer had stalled out yesterday by flaring his wings wide. She did the same and grunted against a sudden drag that pulled uncomfortably at skin, muscle, and bone. But she stopped spinning and found she was facing the ground, which was far, far below… And in fact, far enough down that she instinctively realized she had time to think about her next move. As she started to glide awkwardly on her locked wings, Quistis flapped and ‘jumped’ slightly in the air. At the weightless apex of her leap, she flapped again and went higher. And then again, and again, until Quistis’s sight suddenly blurred and she realized she had flown into a cloud. Peripherally she was aware of Seifer flying overhead. 

 

“You look like a drunken goat going up the stairs!” He yelled, but she heard the joy in his voice. 

 

“And you might as well be a tossed turtle!” She called back giddily. Seifer laughed and spilled air heartstoppingly fast to drop down alongside her.

 

“I knew you’d get it,” he said smugly. 

 

“Yes, well, next time I’d appreciate it if you explained your plan first.”

 

“You wouldn’t get mad enough to stop thinking if you knew what was going on,” he said, and Quistis had to admit he was right. “I’m just glad you didn’t scream at me again.”

 

“Me too. If I’d hit you yesterday…”

 

Seifer shrugged, which was accomplished with a ripple of motion down his neck since his shoulders and wings were occupied. “You didn’t. And you won’t, now that you’ve got more control. Hey.”

 

“What?” Quistis asked, and then yelped as Seifer tipped the edge of her wing up with his own, sending her tilting away from him without warning. “Hey!”

 

“What?” He shot back. “You don’t think you know _everything,_ do you?”

 

Quistis would have rolled her eyes, but instead she laughed. “So you want to teach me?”

 

“Who else?” He nodded at Fujin and Raijin, who were serenely dipping in and out of the clouds like they did in ocean waves. “They don’t have wings. They don’t know all the tricks.”

 

“Like what?” 

 

Seifer grinned, flashing his wonderfully sharp teeth. Immediately he went into a series of complicated acrobatics, practically tying knots in the air to rival Fujin and Raijin’s serpentine lengths, and swept up and down so fast that Quistis started getting dizzy watching him. And more than that, he made all of it look easy. It was plain to see that Seifer absolutely loved to fly and spent every moment perfecting his balance of power, speed, and effortless  motion. He could use the momentum from a dive and a hard flick to pop back up in the air and the slightest curve of his wings could have him spinning so quick that he turned into a silver blur no matter way he was going. He would change direction sharply in midair by sticking out his paws or tail like he could grab something and curve around it, or suddenly shoot up so high that he would disappear against the sun. He was absolutely, undeniably, without a question absolutely magnificent to watch, and Quistis’s heart soared along with him. From time to time Seifer would glance at her and smirk in that rakishly confident way he had, which made Quistis blush under her scales like she was a human, and there was a quiver in her hips that made her even more heated and uncomfortable.

 

“Show-off,” she said, trying to be aloof when Seifer at last came back to fly next to her.

 

“Jealous,” he returned. She saw him edging closer to tip her wing again and she veered away, nearly steering into Fujin by accident. Fortunately the Far Eastern dragon was descending, as was her mate.

 

“There’s the marsh!” said Raijin, making Quistis look down. In fields of verdant green below, a vaguely gourd-shaped swamp of darker trees grew amidst a shining lake and glittered with more water as they drew nearer. Quistis did not recognize the land from any maps she knew, but saw no point in worrying about it; it wasn’t like she could go back to anything familiar the way she was right now. Still, she was nervous about meeting these fabled blue mages and had no idea what they might think of her. They might be distant relatives. Would they recognize that about her? Would she recognize her family in them?

 

And rather importantly, how did one land?

 

Fortunately Fujin and Raijin once again offered themselves as supports, so instead of smashing into the ground or hitting it too fast and rolling forever, Quistis landed at the edge of the marsh as lightly as though her father had set her down. Seifer backwinged until he was practically hovering above his desired landing place before dropping to the ground and giving himself a hard shake all over. He seemed flushed, but in a healthy and vibrant way. 

 

“Where are these people?” He demanded, looking at the marsh. They were on what appeared to be the driest section outside of it but there was still water seeping up between Quistis’s toes and she was sinking a little into the soggy ground. Seifer was having the same problem and when he tried to move somewhere more solid, loud sucking noises under his feet showed just how difficult that was.

 

“They’re around,” said Raijin, stepping forward. Quistis had to look twice when she saw him literally walking on top of the water and boggy grass, and the same went for Fujin too. Apparently sea dragons had tricks of their own. “Just wait.”

 

“For how long?”

 

“WAIT,” repeated Fujin, which made Seifer growl. Quistis chose to look around. The marsh grass was high enough to come to her chest and looked like a saw-edged variety that would be very uncomfortable for someone without scales. Ahead of her were tall, dense trees with roots that wove together above the glimmering marsh waters and quickly hid whatever was inside in deep shadow. She took a deep breath and smelled nothing other than peat, water, and the slightly sulfurous smell of marsh gasses. 

 

“Ho!”

 

Quistis looked immediately to her left. A person had suddenly appeared, one dressed in… A rather interesting way. Quistis could see nothing of the person except their eyes and hands, and the rest of them was covered in shapeless clothing that was dyed in shifting browns and greens that changed color with every subtle movement. Slung across the person’s back was a long woven basket that went from the top of their head to the bottom of their hip and in one hand they held what Quistis swore was a huge fork. The weirdest part of the person’s costume, however, was the flat, bright red cloth mask that came down from below the person’s eyes and dropped down to their navel, and between the scarlet color and the tapered shape, it looked almost exactly like a huge protruding tongue. 

 

“HO,” said Fujin solemnly.

 

“What you want?” Asked the person brusquely, looking at the dragons with just as much interest and lack of concern as one might have for cows.

 

“We wanna talk to the Master,” said Raijin, inclining his head. “We’d like to ask a favor.”

 

“No favors,” said the person, then reached down to stab at something lightning-quick in the grass. When the person straightened, there was a wriggling brown frog caught between the tines of their long fork. “No frogs, no favors. You catch frogs for me, I take you to Master Quale.”

 

“Oh hell no,” Seifer sputtered, his wing webs darkening with temper. 

 

“Need thirty frogs,” said the person, continuing to hunt through the grass. “Gold one is best. Like so!”

 

“We’re not catching frogs!” Seifer exhorted as the person stabbed into the grass and came up with a yellow frog.

 

“Your loss,” said the person, shrugging the top of their woven basket open and tossing the captured frogs into it with a practiced flick. Another shrug shut the top of the basket.

 

“Can’t we just go in?” Seifer asked Fujin and Raijin, who both shook their heads.

 

“They’ll kick us out for rudeness and never help, ya know?” 

 

“Ugghhh…”

 

“Please,” said Quistis to the robed person. “I need help. I’ve been enchanted.”

 

“No frogs, no favor.”

 

“I might be a blue mage too. Surely—”

 

“No Qu gets stuck.” The robed person spotted another frog and jabbed into the grass, but made a tsking noise when s/he missed. “And no Qu turns dragon, either. Stand still!”

 

Quistis stood still, but she looked down as the robed person began to creep toward her. At once, the secret of how they moved so easily through the long wet grass became evident as Quistis saw long struts coming off the person’s shoes, like bird toes with thin webbing near the roots. She looked down at her own toes and saw a golden frog sitting between two of her claws. The person raised his/her fork and approached silently, eyes bright with focus.

 

“Quina!”

 

“Blah!” The robed person jumped as Quistis heard the call on her left. She turned to look and saw no less than five people coming out of the marsh, all dressed the same as the robed person and wearing the same long red mask. The one in the center did have a fancy hat on, as well as a certain air of authority. 

 

“Quina, why you bother guests with your homework?” Xe demanded shortly of the first robed person, who grumbled. 

 

“Homework stupid. Want challenge.”

 

“No challenge without complete, neat work. Can’t do simple thing? _Definitely_ cannot do hard thing.”

 

Quina hmph’ed and continued searching sullenly through the grass. Meanwhile the fancy-hat person looked Quistis, Fujin, Raijin, and Seifer over in turn. 

 

“I am Master Quale,” xe said formally, inclining xis head. “You have found Qu Village. What can we do for you, honored _shenlong_ and friends?”

 

“Thank you for meeting with us,” said Fujin, her voice soft and very proper. “We would like to ask a favor. This friend here has been enchanted into this shape. She was once human and more specifically, one of your own.”

 

“My name is Quistis.” And she bowed her head, which seemed polite. Quale hummed loudly. 

 

“Your parents’ names?”

 

“Arryn and Quelyn.”

 

“Quelyn’s parents?”

 

“Nayaq and Quan.”

 

“Ahh, Quan,” said Quale, while the others in his group either hummed or chuckled. “Quan left us a long time ago. Was Quan your grandmother or grandfather?”

 

“Grandfather…” said Quistis, a bit confused and a lot more stunned. “Ah… He died when I was young, though.”

 

“Mm, mm. He was not young when he left.” Quale tilted xis head and looked at Quistis keenly. “Your blood is diluted, but in his prime Quan was very strong. With some study, you could turn back to normal.”

 

Quistis nearly fainted with relief but was not so happy she lost her mind. “What sort of study?”

 

“Meditation. Some potions.”

 

Quina immediately straightened and started waving his/her fork very excitedly. “Oh! Oh!”

 

“That is, if you cannot return on your own.”

 

“Oh! OH!!”

 

“It may take some time,” said Quale blandly, obviously ignoring Quina as s/he began to dance with impatience. 

 

“That one’s about to have a fit,” Seifer observed. Raijin and Fujin chuckled their agreement. 

 

“Follow us, please,” said Quale, gesturing. “The village is not far.”

 

“Master!” Quina shouted, equal parts excited and angry. “Master Qua—”

 

“Homework!” Quale shouted back, raising what looked like xis own fork. Xis fork, however, was much more ornate and had little bone rattles at the end of it that clacked with authority. “Homework before you come home!”

 

“But I—”

 

“FIFTY frogs!?” Quale asked threateningly, and immediately Quina applied him/herself back to hunting. Quistis was not sure if she felt sorry for the poor person or like laughing instead. Seifer had no such conflicts and snickered. 

 

“See you later,” he couldn’t resist saying as they walked into the marsh, and then ducked as Quina hurled a glob of mud at him. “Hey!”

 

“Leave them alone,” said Raijin peaceably, wrapping one whisker around Seifer’s horns and pulling until Seifer turned back around with a grumble. 

 

Like Quina, these Qu wore long bird-toed boots and walked easily over a lattice of interwoven tree roots. Quistis and Seifer followed behind, mincing delicately to avoid stepping in the bogs around the tree roots and periodically stopping to shake off hanging moss and vines that got caught on their wings and scales. Fujin and Raijin simply sank into the marsh waters and swam, their eyes and nostrils visible like crocodiles as the rest of their bodies rippled sinuously under the surface. It was surprisingly dark inside the forest. The trees were spread out enough for Seifer and Quistis to walk between them, but so tall and so broad-canopied that slim shafts of sunlight hung between branches like gold chains. There was a surprising amount of noise inside the marsh too, especially when Quistis thought about the silent walk from Seifer’s sort-of cave to the village the day before (oh goodness, just a day before? How time flew when one had wings!). The animals here were clearly unafraid of dragons, or were maybe used to bigger and scarier things. Every now and then one of Quale’s group would stop and either stab at something with a long fork or shoot something with a bow or blowgun. They moved so quickly and so silently that it always took Quistis by surprise, especially when it became evident that they were getting something every single time; a fish, a bird, a couple of snakes. Some were taken alive. Others were not. One person darted ahead with no warning and by the time the group caught up, was pulling fat white grubs out of some kind of hornet’s nest and eating them like candy. It made Quistis a little ill, but she kept her mouth shut. She didn’t see anything like farmland in this marsh, so the Qu ate whatever they could find. Seifer was also thankfully silent. 

 

It was hard to tell how long they had been walking before the village came into sight. And it was quite a sight. Studding the outside of several huge trees were round pods supported by networks of twisted vines tethering them to branches above, every one lit up with a little glowing light within and sporting little doorways and platforms that made Quistis realize that the odd structures were actually houses. They were everywhere and varied in size from a modest shack to what looked like multi-roomed mansions, and they looked almost exactly like the hard, hairy spheres that Quistis had once seen back at the order called ‘coconuts’. Ropeways and walkways took the place of roads, and a cut-off tree in the rough center bore a large covered platform that looked like a town square. The base of the village was a thick network of tree roots so tightly woven that no water was visible at all, except in several places where not only the tree roots had been cleared away, but the canopy above had been cut back too to admit sunlight onto what looked like irregular fields of weeds. Qu villagers were everywhere, but not everyone was in brown and green. In fact, little children about in bright robes of blue, yellow, and red with their faces visible and heads uncovered, and elders wore plain hooded robes with red tabards instead of masks, their faces all alike with the deep wrinkles of age. The youngsters and people of childbearing age were more uniform in their look and their face-coverings, but again still wore brighter colors than Quale and his group did. As soon as they came to the village, Quale’s compatriots went ahead and left Quale with the four dragons. 

 

“We have quarters we use to heal Behemoths when they are sick,” xe said to Quistis and Seifer. “We will clean them and make them comfortable for you. As for you, _shenlong_ , we can provide you with the same accommodations or you may stay in a house.”

 

“We’ll just stay in the water, if it’s all the same to you,” said Raijin, wriggling in the swampy lake. “This feels great.”

 

“The waters of Qu Village are very special.”

 

“HEALING,” Fujin commented, and managed to sink even lower into the water without completely disappearing. It would have looked relaxing except the water looked black against her pale scales and Raijin basically vanished into it, which made Quistis’s scales creep a little. She was unsure if it was her natural fastidiousness or something about her new body that made her viscerally uncomfortable with the idea of dirty water. Seifer seemed similarly distasteful. Quale looked at him up and down.

 

“ _You_ we cannot help,” he said solemnly. “You have no ability of your own to change shape, and that means the enchantment upon you is permanent unless the caster should change xyr mind.”

 

“I don’t want to turn back,” huffed Seifer, fanning his wings. “I _like_ myself.”

 

“Of course,” said Quale as Quistis suppressed the urge to glare at Seifer. “Are you hungry? We have some fish.”

 

“No, please,” said Quistis, shaking her head even as her stomach growled loudly. “I don’t want to take any of your supplies.”

 

“We have enough,” said Quale. Gesturing at the weed field, he said, “We grow rice and carp. We harvest honey and mushrooms from all over the marsh. And we trade with our cousins, the Shumi, when they come through. Do not worry about starving us. We can easily feed ten dragons and still overwinter without issue.”

 

“I’m getting a boar,” said Seifer, turning around. “I don’t take charity.”

 

“As you wish,” said Quale as Seifer walked off. Fujin and Raijin had disappeared too, and despite the fact that she was much bigger than Quale and much stronger, Quistis suddenly felt nervous. She would have folded her arms if she’d been human but as a dragon she had to settle for scratching the tree roots she was standing on. She was not sure why she was so uncomfortable until Quale said, “This is not your fault. If you were not trained as a child, you had no way of knowing how to fix your shape now.”

 

“Oh.” Quistis couldn’t accurately describe how much of a relief that was to hear. “Well… How long do you think it will take, then?”

 

“At least a month,” said Quale, which made Quistis gasp. “No longer than three. If by then you cannot change back, I will have Quina make you a potion that will force the change, though it will be very uncomfortable and you will still be able to be pushed into other shapes by magic.”

 

“Quina… The blue mage we met outside?”

 

“Mm. Very smart. Unfortunately, very sloppy. Once s/he thinks s/he knows something, s/he sees no reason to change his/her ways or improve upon what s/he has learned.” Quale’s eyes glinted. “Hence, the homework. Besides, frogs are delicious.”

 

Xe walked into the village proper, which was coming down out of the trees and the elevated square to assemble on a leveled-out counterpart below. Quale gestured to Quistis and spoke in a loud, commanding voice at the small sea of attentive masked and unmasked faces. 

 

“This is Quistis, granddaughter of Master Quan,” xe said. “She will be staying with us for a while. Treat her as our own, because she is.”

 

“Master Quan married a dragon!?” Someone yelped, making a titter go through the crowd. 

 

“No, Master Quan married a human woman,” said Quale, unperturbed. “Quistis is enchanted into this shape.”

 

“No fair!” Someone else shouted. “Why she have two shape already?”

 

“Because she is enchanted.”

 

“Lucky!”

 

“Not really,” Quistis muttered, nevertheless suppressing the urge to laugh. Several of the small children were now approaching curiously, their eyes shining with great interest instead of the expected fear. She couldn’t help but wonder how many dragons they had seen. 

 

“If you please, are you really a human?” One of them asked, charmingly formal. Despite having xir face uncovered, Quistis had no idea if she was looking at a boy or a girl, and the voice was similarly androgynous. 

 

“Yes,” said Quistis, nodding. 

 

“How’d you get chanted?”

 

“I ran afoul of an evil sorceress.”

 

“Oooh,” said the children, clearly more impressed than afraid. Quistis smiled a little lopsidedly. She remembered being this age very well and how easy it was to be completely starry-eyed over stories. And remembering how awed she’d felt when she’d first seen Sir Loire, Quistis adopted the best of her knight-master and lowered her head to be as friendly-looking as possible. 

 

“I won’t hurt you,” she said. “Not by accident and definitely not on purpose. You can come up to me.”

 

Their eyes lit up. All at once Quistis was surrounded, not just by children but by curious Qu of every age, all of whom wanted to pat her scales or wings or inspect her claws. It was slightly claustrophobic but also made Quistis laugh as some of the braver children decided to try climbing up her back and had to be pulled down by scolding parents. Though she hadn’t seen her family in years, this felt like coming home and a sense of security and confidence quietly bloomed in Quistis’s chest. A solution _would_ be found here one way or another. She was sure of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quina is referred to as s/he in the first FFIX translation I played, so that's why it changes from 'them/their' to 's/he' as soon as Quina is referred to by name. And Quale gets the X's so I can distinguish between multiple speakers without constantly using name :P
> 
> The Qu here are genderless. They are born that way and live that way until it's time to have children, then they shapeshift into the necessary configurations and go about their merry way. It's very convenient. Both parents can nurse the baby. And in families with multiple children, the parents take turns as to who bears the next child. I'm not sure this will ever come up in the story (aside from Quale asking if Quan was a grandmother or grandfather... I might edit that line out later), so into the notes it goes.


	6. The Games Begin

It was too tight to hunt in the marsh, so Seifer left the damp swampy place and took to the air. In the forests leading up to the bog were a couple of open places that Seifer could execute his usual hawklike strike, and a quick sweep of the area netted Seifer a wild boar and sow that had their heads down for a drink and were probably a literal ton of meat when combined. He dropped and broke their necks in the same blow, and afterwards noted they were somewhat lean; well, it was springtime. Now his mouth watered but Seifer abstained from eating the wild pigs and after securing his grip on both of them, took off for Qu Village again. He was not concerned about his need to pay his way; dragons tended to be transactional creatures to begin with and even Fujin and Raijin’s charity had made him uncomfortable. The meat would pay for Quistis putting a dent in the Qu supplies also, though as soon as she was more settled in her skin, Seifer planned to show her how to hunt too. It was only fair… And it would be fun. Really fun. Seifer sighed a bit as he flew, longing nearly cracking his chest in two. She was such a quick learner! And despite his jokes about her appearance, Quistis had looked absolutely wonderful even in her awkwardness, practically the embodiment of flame in her brilliant pink-orange scales and flashing gold accents. How much more perfect she’d be when she actually knew what she was doing!

 

_“Why does she want to be a human, anyway? Her life will be shorter. Her skin will be soft and vulnerable. She wouldn’t be able to fly. She only wants to go back because it’s familiar, when life is so much better as a dragon!”_

 

The more Seifer thought about it, the more it made sense for Quistis to stay as she was. But telling her that to her face might get her breathing sunlight-fire at him again, so Seifer resolved to be a more circumspect. If he showed her what to do, she’d discover the magnificence of flight and the joys of draconian strength on her own. And then she’d make her own decision with all the information and decide to stay a dragon out of her own free will. They could even go looking for caves together later. And share one, since good caves were hard to find. And once they shared a cave, well… Maybe…

 

And then Seifer had to stop thinking about _maybe_ because he missed a change in the wind and suddenly found himself tumbling tail over snout like a beginner. A few hard flaps and a twist set him aright, and he was glad that nobody had been around to see his gracelessness. Or ask what had caused it. Stupid Quistis and her long, shapely limbs. And her graceful neck. And the fierce flash of her sapphire-like eyes…

 

Seifer made it back to Qu Village without further embarrassment. An elderly Qu pointed him in the direction of the village’s larder when he asked and Seifer went there to drop off the wild boars. The larder was in a hollowed-out tree slightly outside the village’s main boundaries and when Seifer rose up on his back legs and sat on his tail for balance, he could look right into it. A few adult Qu were inside, including one he recognized mostly because of his/her basket of frogs.

 

“Got enough frogs already?” He asked Quina, who grunted at him. The other adult Qu were considerably more surprised and a few of them went “Blah!” Or “Gah!” In surprise. 

 

“Stupid easy homework.” Quina eyed the boars Seifer was resting on the larder’s walkway. “Oh-ho, pig. Give to me.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Job,” said Quina. “Plus, tasty fat.”

 

Seifer pushed the boars in through the larder’s doorway, with the Qu inside pulling them in and dragging them over to appropriate preparatory areas.  “Alright, now where do I get something to eat?”

 

“Master Quale makes house for you,” said Quina, producing a startlingly large and sharp knife from the folds of his/her robe. “Go there.”

 

“Where’s there?”

 

“There,” said Quina, waving the knife in a deliberately vague direction. Seifer snorted and left just as Quina applied his/her attention to the wild boars and started chuckling as s/he began to take them apart. 

 

Seifer remembered Quale saying something about ‘Behemoth stables’ but hadn’t thought about what such things would look like. He had definitely not expected multiple lattice-rooted trees to be coaxed together into forming huge ‘caves’ atop elevated ground. Grass and mud daubed inside the ‘caves’ made them weatherproof and the canopies of the trees that made up the shelters were both wide and staggered to serve as windbreaks and rain deflectors. Youngish Qu were putting piles of sweet-smelling reeds and grass into two of these stables, which Seifer noted were right next to each other. Alas, they were fully separated.

 

“Where’s Quistis?” He asked one of the young Qu, startling but not frightening the little masked and robed person.

 

“She with Master Quale,” said the little Qu, pointing off into the swamp. “Study now. Meditate. Don’t bother.”

 

“Don’t bother?” Seifer bristled a little. “Why? Is she doing something I’m not supposed to see?”

 

“Concentrate. Meditate.” The little Qu shrugged. “Master Quale ordered.”

 

Seifer grumbled. He did not like the idea of Quistis doing something without him even as he recognized there was no point in him going to ‘how to be human’ again lessons. He debated hunting her down just to make sure she wasn’t doing anything foolish, though he couldn’t imagine what sort of idiocy might actually put her in danger or warrant his presence. If he started lurking around for no good reason, he was sure she’d become angry with him and that would mean she wouldn’t want to fly with him later. Hmph. 

 

_“So what am I supposed to do now?”_

 

Well, he was still hungry. There was food nearby in the form of a long trough filled with fish, plucked birds, and a bushel of nuts that popped pleasantly as they cooked on the way down his throat. Afterwards Seifer decided to wander around the village. The houses being at eye level amused him, though he was careful not to knock them about or destroy the walkways that the flightless, wingless Qu used to get around. His presence was a surprise but not scary to any of the blue mages, though a few pointedly shut their doors or windows in his face when he peered into their homes. Inside, the Qu took off their robes and masks to reveal normal human-looking figures, though they all seemed somewhat sexless. They were pale for the most part and their hair was both any and all colors in a patchy way that reminded Seifer of woodland animals. As far as he could tell, everyone had blue eyes too but nobody exactly looked like Quistis in her human form aside from that. After one circuit around, he heard a familiar splashing noise and turned to see Fujin and Raijin frolicking in the dark swamp waters. Knowing they had once been a fish and a snake suddenly made their love of the stuff make a lot more sense. 

 

“Hey!” He called sharply, making them look at him. “Be decent! There are children around!” And he ducked behind his wing, laughing, as Fujin spat a jet of water at him. 

 

“It’s been a while since I’ve been in fresh water,” said Raijin, eeling out of the swamp and sending a fine shiver down his body to shed water without flinging it. “It’s harder to swim in, but it feels good!”

 

“CLEAN.” Fujin came out of the water too, shivering it off in the same way. “QUISTIS?”

 

“She’s some meditating or some junk,” Seifer grumbled, shaking swamp water off his wing. “I’m not supposed to bother her.”

 

“Said who?”

 

“Some Qu.”

 

Fujin and Raijin looked at him archly. “YOU LISTENED?”

 

“What else am I supposed to do?”

 

“Whatever you want, Seifer.” Raijin started raking his claws down both whiskers in what looked like a painful way, but that was nevertheless how he cleaned them both. “If you want to find her, go. If you don’t want to, stay. But make sure it’s what you want and not what other beings told you to do, ya know?”

 

Seifer growled. Still, Raijin’s approval made him feel better and after taking a few minutes to talk with Fujin and Raijin so as not to seem desperate, Seifer went in search of Quistis. When he calmed down and thought about her, there was a funny little pull in his chest in a definite direction. Fujin and Raijin had told him that might happen once he settled on a hoard of his own, so he took it for a sign that Quistis was somewhere to the west and started walking. A combination of careful stepping, short hops, and occasional climbing of the thick, sturdy trees got Seifer to where he wanted to be without having to touch any of the disgusting swamp water, and eventually he came to a bit of dry land where Quale and Quistis were both sitting quietly. Quale was a lump under xis robes, looking like a brown rock someone had thrown red paint down the middle of, and Quistis was facing xim with her eyes closed, her wings folded, and her tail tucked neatly around her body. Her posture was that of a regal lioness, both front legs lying flat in front of her and her head high on an effortlessly curved neck. Yet despite their lack of motion, there was something in the air that felt thick and uncomfortable. Seifer stayed at the edge of it, curling up to rest on his paws, and waited with the same patience he used for hunting bears and moose until at last Quale stirred and Quistis opened her eyes.

 

“Well?” Asked Quale.

 

“Still nothing.”

 

“Still early.” Quale noticed Seifer then and inclined his head. “You have come to watch?”

 

“I’m bored,” said Seifer. Quistis shot him an irritated look, but when he didn’t make any motion to come closer, she calmed down. 

 

“Well, I’m studying,” she told him unnecessarily. “And it’s not going well, so don’t ask.”

 

Seifer fluffed his wings a little. “Touchy. Fine. I was just curious.”

 

“You expect too much,” said Quale to Quistis, who hung her head. “This is a powerful enchantment and you have absolutely no training in what we teach children right after speaking. You must have patience for yourself or the solution will never truly reveal itself.”

 

“Yes, Master.”

 

 _Yes, Master._ Seifer felt a shiver of disgust ripple through his stomach. No wonder Fujin and Raijin had always told him to do exactly what he wanted. ‘Servile’ wasn’t a good tone on anyone, even Quistis. Besides, what was he teaching her the mastery of? An inferior shape? If Quistis should be calling anyone ‘master’, it should be Seifer.

 

“Take a rest and think on this,” said Quale, getting up. “It will be clearer tomorrow.”

 

Seifer saw his opportunity at once. “Yeah, you’ll do better after a rest. And maybe some flying time.”

 

“No thank you,” said Quistis, getting to her feet somewhat stiffly. “I’ve had enough flying for today. And I need to think.”

 

“You can think and fly at the same time,” Seifer wheedled as Quale left, taking a little punt that moved surprisingly quickly through the waters. 

 

“No, Seifer.”

 

“You had a good time earlier.”

 

“That doesn’t mean I want to fly again.”

 

Damn. Seifer mulled over his options and tried not to be distracted as Quistis stretched, particularly when she pushed out her front legs to straighten her back ones and a lazy look of relief entered her eyes. Whether she knew it or not (probably not) it was an uncomfortably suggestive posture.

 

“You clearly need some kind of exercise,” he said, trying to keep a sudden surge of pervertedness out of his voice. “It’ll get the blood flowing. You’ll think better afterward too.”

 

“You sound like Sir Loire,” Quistis grumbled as she stretched out her back legs. Seifer frowned, not liking this new name on instinct.

 

“Who’s Sir Loire?”

 

“My knight-master.”

 

Master this, master that. Seifer growled his irritation and to his surprise, Quistis chuckled. Seifer cocked his head.

 

“You’re not fond of him, are you?” Something else occurred to Seifer, making him narrow his eyes. “And where is he? Squires aren’t supposed to run around without their knight-masters, are they?”

 

Quistis hunched into her wings a little, looking furtive all of a sudden. “What makes you say that?”

 

“Because otherwise they wouldn’t survive to become knights,” said Seifer, now looking Quistis up and down. “What happened? Did he abandon you?”

 

“No!” Quistis looked away, her posture tightening up even more. “He… Alright, he didn’t know I was going after you.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because he’d try to talk me out of it, like he has before,” said Quistis bitterly, lashing her tail over the ground. “I would have been a knight three years ago, except we kept putting it off… He said the targets weren’t right. And then he’d never file the right papers to have the examiners know what I was doing… And then we were always busy…”

 

Three years ago? Seifer imagined Quistis as she’d been and then tried to imagine her even younger. “Three years ago you would have been a little girl.”

 

“Fifteen is NOT a little girl!”

 

“Did you get taller since then?” Seifer challenged. “Heavier? Stronger?”

 

“Well yes, but—”

 

“Then you were a little girl and you weren’t ready,” said Seifer, which made Quistis glare. “It sounds like he was trying to protect you.”

 

“I don’t need—”

 

“Like when Fujin and Raijin would drown me to keep me from rampaging,” said Seifer pointedly, and Quistis fell silent. “Or when they’d ground me when it was storming outside and I didn’t have full control of my wings. It made me mad at the time, but otherwise I’d be dead, so it evens out.”

 

“You don’t understand,” said Quistis, raking her claws through the dirt. “I _was_ ready. I had been in training for five years at that point—”

 

“And I’d been living as a dragon for fifteen before Fujin and Raijin let me run around by myself,” said Seifer, which made Quistis stare. “Oh yeah, it took me a _long_ time to learn how to fly like I do. Especially around the sea currents, which change more than the tide. And I used to make myself sick trying to spit flame. Once, I burned my guts so bad that I was puking for half a year. That was fun.”

 

“Oh…”

 

Oh, shit. Now she wasn’t going to be interested in being a dragon at all! What was he doing?! Seifer fluffed his wings to hide a bit of awkwardness and said, “I mean, it was all worth it in the end, but you know… Maybe it wasn’t time for you. Yet.”

 

Quistis sighed. “Maybe not then… But I definitely thought it was the right time now! I _am_ older and stronger. I’m so much more prepared. And _now_ look at me.”

 

 _“I_ am _looking at you,”_ thought Seifer, letting his eyes linger over the sinuous sunset curves of her body. She caught him looking and leaned away, her eyes both wary and dilating in relative darkness. Weird.

 

“Not like that,” she told him firmly. But was that the faintest hint of a stutter in her voice? And there was a little breathiness to her voice that was very interesting too…

 

“Like what?” Seifer asked ‘innocently’. “I’ve never seen a dragon in your colors. It’s interesting.”

 

She looked at him a little suspiciously, but he could see the moment when she decided to take the high road and mentally Seifer kicked himself for being so obvious. Lewd interest would frighten her out of being a dragon as much as a bad flight would. 

 

“It must be the mail,” said Quistis, looking at herself. “I’ve never seen dragon in these colors either.”

 

“Seen a lot?”

 

“A few,” Quistis said, still examining her scales. “Sir Loire vanquished three.”

 

“Sounds like he knows what he’s doing,” said Seifer evenly. He wasn’t sure he liked the idea of Quistis apprenticing under a confirmed dragon-killer, but then wasn’t sure why he expected anything different. She wanted to be a knight, after all, and vanquishing dragons was one of the things they did.

 

“Well, by ‘vanquished’, I mean he smoked two out of their caves and the other, he fought one and won… With my help.” Quistis lifted her wings, coloring her face a deep saffron as sunlight shone through her wing-webs. “Which was why I thought I was ready…”

 

“Hold on, what do you mean he ’smoked’ them out?” Said Seifer, who had once gone flying through a forest fire because it had seemed like great fun, and emerged on the other side completely unscathed.

 

“It was a mated pair with no eggs. He put a pot full of dragonsbane and coals in the back of the cave, and it made the dragons choke and run outside,” said Quistis, and then shook her head. “And _then_ we jumped on their backs and hammered their heads with maces until they threw us off and flew away. We waited a week and when they didn’t come back, we considered it a job well done.” 

 

Seifer laughed at the mental image. “Why the hell would that work?”

 

“I don’t know,” said Quistis, tossing her head like she could still roll human eyes. “He was always full of strange ideas like that. He was positively afraid of conflict. I used to think I was slowing him down, but the older I got the more I realized that he just really doesn’t like fighting.”

 

A knight that didn’t like fighting? What an odd one.

 

Then Quistis sighed moodily. “He’s probably discovered I’m gone by now… And he’ll probably come looking for me. And when he doesn’t find me, I don’t know what he’ll do. I swear, the man doesn’t know how to find his _socks_ without me around.”

 

“He’s that stupid?”

 

“He’s absentminded sometimes,” Quistis sighed again. “He’s a fool, honestly. He loves to travel more than anything else. But there are certain parts of being a knight that he takes very seriously, and if he thinks I’m dead, he’ll be very upset. Oh no…”

 

“What?”

 

Quistis hung her head. “He’ll tell my family. And _they’ll_ all think I’m dead! I have to turn back human as fast as possible, or it’ll break everyone’s hearts.”

 

A family? Quistis had a family? Seifer tried to imagine people around Quistis who looked like her and were like her, except couldn’t come up with much of anything. She was still that singular and interesting to him. 

 

“Well, you’re obviously not turning into anything today,” said Seifer determinedly, which made Quistis sigh. “Like Quale said, you should rest. Think of something else. Play a little.”

 

“Play?” She looked at him incredulously. “Play what?”

 

Seifer stood up and approached. She didn’t shy from him but did lean away a little as he got closer, and he noticed that the gold-colored webbing on her wings started flushing a deeper ochre. She seemed to be holding eye contact in a deliberately firm way, but he saw her pupils dilate the closer he got. There was a subtle change in the color of her scales as she unconsciously took a breath and then held it. Seifer was sure he wasn’t imagining any of the signs, but what they all might mean made his heart thrill. He decided to find out if what he was hoping was true was actually real—but in a nonchalant sort of way to avoid embarrassment. 

 

“Well, there is something that could be a lot of fun,” he mused, taking his time. “Doesn’t involve flying, either.”

 

Quistis didn’t say anything, but her pupils dilated more. And he saw her mouth open ever-so-lightly, like she was waiting on a word. 

 

“We could do it right now,” he said, now enjoying the tension.

 

“And… What would that be?” Asked Quistis, stiffly formal even as her wings flushed deeper gold. 

 

Seifer chose not to say anything. He instead came closer and closer, practically near enough that he could lean down and touch his muzzle to hers. Quistis remained where she was, as still and delicate as a deer. She was practically trembling with well-hidden interest. Seifer’s blood thrummed in his veins but at the same time, so did a wiggle of warning. They were getting into dangerous territory now. Sure, it might be fun, but what kind of ‘master’ would he be if he rolled her just because he could? He wanted her to be the best possible dragoness she could be, not just _his_ dragoness in the most basic kind of way. Nevertheless he felt a pull towards her as he leaned down, and Quistis took the tiniest breath of anticipation…

 

Right before he nipped her on the nose. 

 

“OW!” Quistis immediately recoiled in shock. She actually put both of her front paws over her muzzle and sat back hard, her tail flattening behind her for balance. It was such a funny posture that Seifer started laughing, and he only laughed more when she glared. 

 

“Got you back,” he taunted. She growled at him. “Oh, what? You can’t take it?”

 

“If _biting_ someone is your idea of play, I can’t say I care much for it.”

 

Seifer rolled his eyes. He leaned forward with his mouth open again and just like he hoped, Quistis immediately jumped back. 

 

“No!”

 

“Aw, come on!”

 

“I’ll bite you first!” She shot, leaping out of the way as he pounced playfully at her. 

 

“Pfft, like you could!”

 

“I already have!” Said Quistis, her tail lashing. But already her voice was lighter and her pupils were narrow with focus, and when Seifer jumped at her again, she not only dodged but checked him in the shoulder with a hard tackle of her own. Seifer nearly went rolling and the impact was a shock, but at the same time it was thrilling. As was the challenging look Quistis gave him right before she went running through the marsh, a sunset of flicker of gleaming scales through the shadowed darkness. Seifer grinned and immediately gave chase.

 

They did not stay in the main marsh for long; it was too tight to run free and more than once, they accidentally fell into the swampy water with yelps of disgust and laughter (which was usually followed by another yell and splash since the laughing dragon wasn’t watching his or her footing). Seifer burst out of the swamp first to run in the grasslands surrounding it and looked over his shoulder just in time to see Quistis launching herself out of a tree, claws extended and eyes alight with glee. Seifer put on a burst of speed but it was not enough and he went chestfirst into the soggy marsh grass, sending water and a few startled egrets flying. Quistis perched on his back, her claws just above his wing sockets, and chuckled. 

 

“This _is_ a fun game,” she said as Seifer pushed himself up and shook the water off him. 

 

“You cheated,” he said good-naturedly. “You got up in the trees.” 

 

“Oh? Did we say we weren’t supposed to?” She gave him a bright, ‘innocent’ look. Seifer snorted and then realized she was still close by. He lunged, trying to bite her shoulder, but Quistis skipped out of the way and tapped him across the chest with her tail instead. The blade at the end drew sparks that made Quistis freeze in sudden worry, but Seifer felt only pressure and when he glanced down, there was no mark. 

 

“Well, if we’re using our tails now,” he said, spinning in place. His tail was just as long as hers but much thicker, and Seifer literally knocked Quistis’s feet out from under her with it. She went down in a pile of limbs and wings before struggling up, and Seifer laughed when he saw the dried bits of marsh grass sticking out from between her scales. Quistis arched a brow at him, then scooped up and packed a pile of mud like she was still human.

 

“Hey, no,” said Seifer, immediately backing up. “Don’t—“

 

She did. And while her limbs were draconian, that made no difference to her aim and Seifer jerked as mud splattered all over his chest. That offended him more than the accidental strike, especially when he tried to return the favor and couldn’t coordinate the motions necessary to make a ball, much less throw one in any direction. Mercifully Quistis just laughed instead of pelting him with more mud balls while he was helpless. 

 

“Oh, you’ll never get it all off that way,” she said after a few minutes of watching him trying to scratch the sticky black mud off his chest and end up smearing it all over himself instead. Grabbing a handful of marsh grass, she dunked it in a puddle of clearer water and came over to briskly wipe the mud off him, saying, “Here.”

 

Seifer stood still, recognizing this rare opportunity for what it was. When Quistis came close and started scrubbing the black mud off his chest, a very pleasant tingle started going through him at the nearness of her touch, and he briefly lost himself in the gleam of light playing across her horns. Rays of uninterrupted splendor radiated over the curve of each unscratched, unscarred horn, making it look like Quistis was wearing a marvelous crown whose flowerlike shape accented the delicacy and fine proportions of her slim, pointed muzzle and expressive eyes. She might have blushed to see him looking at her again, except she was totally focused on her task. He had a glimpse of what a serious, dutiful squire she must have been, and how exasperated she’d be with a knight-master who was not her match in such things. Maybe she’d been telling the truth about being ready at fifteen. If she had been apprenticed to someone who actually knew what he was doing, what might she be now?

 

 _“Well, whatever._ I’ll _teach her to be the best dragon ever. She’ll never want to be human after that.”_

 

A chorus of giggles made them turn and see several Qu children herded by two adults looking at them from nearby. From the greenery-filled baskets on their backs, they were gathering wild foods. Adults and children alike looked amused, and they all laughed with a peculiar “Ho ho ho” instead of anything resembling an actual human noise. 

 

“What are you looking at?!” Seifer demanded, flaring his wings. Quistis dropped her marsh grass and stepped back, her wings flushing the color of old amber in embarrassment. None of the Qu were abashed, however. In fact, the children started singing what seemed like a schoolyard chant about kissing in trees while the adults puffed their long red face masks in such a way that it looked like they were waggling very long tongues at Seifer and Quistis. Seifer bristled. “Have some respect!”

 

“Oh, leave them alone,” said Quistis, an embarrassed little chuckle in her voice. “It’s nice they’re not afraid of us.”

 

“Says you,” Seifer grumbled. “You’ll want people to be afraid of you after you get charged by a few knights.”

 

Quistis didn’t say anything to that. When Seifer glanced at her, all of her good humor was gone and she was looking down at her claws with a somber expression. Seifer felt like kicking himself again but when he opened his mouth, Quistis sighed.

 

“Thank you for the games, Seifer,” she said, turning around. “I think I’m going to go back and rest now.”

 

“Fine,” he said shortly. He was frustrated at screwing up again, but what could he do? He couldn’t swallow his words. Quistis would find out about marauding knights soon enough. And besides, he had some time. She had only been a dragon for two days. There was no rush… Especially if she didn’t make any progress with her studies. Was there a way to… Well, not exactly sabotage what she was doing, because she’d kill him… But make study seem less appealing? Seifer mulled over this option and decided it was the best course for everyone. 

 

“I’ll be back later,” he told her, making Quistis nod absently. Raising his wings and crouching, Seifer took off straight up into the air again, momentarily banishing worries with the elation of flight. Quistis looked up at him a little wistfully but made no attempt to follow. He watched her walk back and disappear into the marsh, and hoped it wasn’t an omen as he wheeled away to think about the future he wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2/20/17, 1:28:41 PM] aurenare: boy, are you heavy on teasing draconian smut xDD
> 
> [2/20/17, 1:30:25 PM] klepto-maniac0: am i?? hahaha  
> [2/20/17, 1:30:32 PM] klepto-maniac0: it's fun to flirt  
> [2/20/17, 1:30:40 PM] klepto-maniac0: i could lighten it up a bit if you think it's too much
> 
> [2/20/17, 1:32:24 PM] aurenare: nah, the tease is fun to me  
> [2/20/17, 1:32:36 PM] aurenare: it makes you feel... weird xD  
> [2/20/17, 1:32:53 PM] aurenare: like, wtf i am doing rooting for dragon sex
> 
> [2/20/17, 1:33:42 PM] klepto-maniac0: hahahahahahah!!!  
> [2/20/17, 1:34:06 PM] klepto-maniac0: they are in swamp, there should be muddy waters


	7. Stalking Desirable Prey

The fifteenth day Quistis was in Qu Village, a little Qu came to Quistis’s  ‘house’ and told her that there was to be no training today because Quale had been called to oversee a dispute. Quistis said she understood but suppressed twin surges of annoyance (her teacher was gone) and mortification that she had been depriving the village of its leader. Especially because there had been no progress towards becoming human. After two weeks of nonstop meditation and self-contemplation, there was nothing so much as a dropped scale to show for her efforts, and honestly? Quale was no help. Xe simply told her to be patient and keep trying, which was so unhelpful as to make Quistis want to scream. She was not used to failure. Even the most boring and menial work of mucking chocobo stables had a concrete result, but this practice yielded nothing except a fear that she might never go back to who she’d been because she’d never known who she was at all…

 

That thought kept Quistis up at night, particularly if she thought about the lack of progress meant she actually _would_ be better off as a dragon than a human. After all, she had been able to fly and breathe white-hot flames on pure instinct, and she no longer tripped over her new configuration of limbs. One of the occasionally wise things Sir Loire said was: “Don’t hold onto a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it” which was of course, quite sensible, but then Quistis would get angry because she did not want to feel like her entire life up until this point was a mistake. Being a human couldn’t possibly be a mistake, it was who she was, _so why couldn’t she change back already?!_

 

_“Quale said that if I knew who I truly was, I’d be able to break the enchantment. But I don’t know how I could know myself more than I do already! What am I doing wrong?”_

  
Moodily Quistis laid on the stable floor and sighed, making dried reeds fly out of the mouth of her temporary dwelling. Predictably this was when Seifer looked over from next door and got a face full of chaff, which added a dusting of embarrassment to her already poor mood. Fortunately Seifer huffed the dried reeds away and said, “I found something neat. Let’s go.”

 

“I don’t feel like going anywhere, Seifer,” sighed Quistis, putting her head down on her crossed arms. “Even if Master Quale can’t teach today, I can still meditate on my own.”

 

“And you can meditate when you come back too. Come _on._ You’re getting all pink instead of red and orange.”

 

Quistis grumbled. “And what’s wrong with pink?”

 

“It makes you look undercooked.”

 

“Undercooked!” 

 

“And raw. And slimy.”

 

Quistis immediately stood up. She knew Seifer was trying to goad her into action but couldn’t stop herself from responding. “How dare you!”

 

He grinned at her and disappeared from the front of her ‘house’. A second later she heard his heavy tread running away and with a growl that he’d managed to pry her into action so easily, Quistis gave chase. As soon as she moved, vigor seemed to reawaken in her limbs, both giving her speed and the realization that aside from one quick game of tag two weeks ago, she had not really moved or played once. And now that she was moving, Quistis couldn’t think of why she hadn’t. It felt _good_ to run!

 

It was not hard to follow Seifer through the marsh between his size and bright silver-white color, though for a second it seemed like he burst into flame when he left the dark swamp and ran into the sunny grasslands outside. Quistis braced but was still nearly blinded by the sudden light and as a result, felt rather than saw Seifer take off into the air. Without thinking much about it she did the same, and the surge of motion and activity brought on such a rush of satisfaction that for a moment, Quistis forgot her fear of heights and her worries about being stuck forever in a wrong shape. Right now, this _was_ the best possible body to be in. A knot in her chest seemed to loosen, which would have made Quistis elated if she’d noticed it. 

 

It was a gorgeous cool spring day with sunshine just thick enough for Quistis to feel her blood warming toward it. Seifer was flying downriver and she drafted behind him, chuckling every time he glanced over his shoulder at her—was he checking to see if she was following, or did he think she was going to bite him again? Quistis toyed with the notion since he had called her slimy before, but decided against it. He hadn’t meant it. Plus, she could call him ‘dented’ or something and it would even out. She had the feeling it would make him laugh too, which always made his eyes glitter attractively and his wing webs turn from ruby to rich garnet. A part of her brain that was decidedly all dragon read these signs as ‘charming’ and ‘mate material’, however, so Quistis didn’t linger on Seifer’s looks for long. She was not going to do anything as a dragon that would horrify her as a human, no matter how much potential fun it might be. How would things even work, anyway, in regards to what fitting where and such? 

 

Abruptly the air became harder and Quistis realized Seifer had started to go down. Instead of dropping like a hunting hawk, he was taking his time with a long and leisurely glide that ended with a few economical backward sweeps and a neat, still landing. Quistis did her best to emulate his example but came down too fast and sharp, so instead of settling nicely on the ground like a songbird she hit the ground like a goose on the water and nearly plowed into the earth facefirst. Seifer snorted but otherwise did not comment on her skills. 

 

“Come up here,” he said, tapping the spot next to him on an ever-so-slightly higher patch of dry-ish land. Quistis obliged, keeping her wings tight to her body to avoid touching him by accident. Uncomfortable attraction aside, she was not sure about dragon manners and did not want to be rude by accident. “Alright, what do you smell?”

 

“The swamp,” said Quistis, looking around. “Wait, you said _smell?”_

 

Seifer nodded, eyes alight. Quistis inhaled and then a second later looked at him in deep affront. Seifer laughed, understanding her expression at once.

 

“It’s the swamp, not me,” he said, grinning. “Come on, I’m not a human child. Anyway, you know what that fart smell means?”

 

“I’m sure I don’t,” said Quistis stiffly, embarrassed for multiple reasons. 

 

Seifer’s grin became bigger and positively unnerving. He took a deep breath but instead of launching into a delighted description, he held his breath… And then took another. And another. Quistis leaned back as the humid air went hot and dry around Seifer, just like it had a little over two weeks ago in Fujin and Raijin’s cave. Seifer turned and half-stood, looking distinctly rounder in the ribs, and making sure to point his head out toward the swamp, opened his mouth and let loose a torrent of scarlet fire that made Quistis flinch ever so slightly. In dragon form she didn’t feel the heat but the sound of the fire and the pressure it sucked out of the air were still overwhelming. 

 

The fire burned over the swamp and to Quistis’s shock, fanned out in irregular puffs and plumes that jumped like lightning. As the flames kept popping up and poofing away, Seifer laughed at Quistis’s look of surprise. 

 

“Marsh gas,” he explained. “You try it.”

 

“Where does it come from?”

 

“The swamp.”

 

“I mean _where_ in the swamp?”

 

“Underwater,” said Seifer, gesturing with his wings and tail. “And around the plants. When they die, they rot and give off flammable gas. And make fun times for us. You try it.”

 

Quistis looked doubtfully at the flames, which were dying out but nevertheless far in the distance. “I don’t know… What if it keeps going?”

 

“It’s been a wet spring,” Seifer pointed out. “Nothing’ll catch on fire for long, and we can put it out before it turns into anything serious. It’s not like we’re not surrounded by water or anything.”

 

Quistis had to laugh at that. “I’m not sure my kind of fire would work on gas.”

 

“Try it.”

 

There was nothing to say to that without sounding like she was whining, so Quistis set her amorphous objections off to the side and tried to breathe fire instead. She was not sure how she’d done it, however. At the time, Quistis remembered literally wanting to scream her rage out like it was a weapon to be used, and the shockingly direct fire was what had resulted. But she wasn’t angry now. Should she scream out a different emotion? But she didn’t have anything that seemed ‘fire-ish’ in the least. So somewhat doubtfully Quistis took a few deep breaths like Seifer had and was surprised when she felt an oddness in her long throat and chest. It was like nothing she’d ever felt as a human, yet entirely natural… Much like flight, actually. Thoughtfully she held this breath and felt it heating up in an area just over her throat, and a sense of itching started to go over her teeth. She nearly ran her tongue over her gums to alleviate the sensation but it refused to move. 

 

“Go,” said Seifer, startling her into movement. The heat abruptly escaped, but not through her mouth; pain flared through Quistis’s face instead as heat vented explosively from her nostrils. Quistis immediately clapped her hands over her throbbing nose, automatic tears welling up in her eyes. Seifer winced. “Not like that, though. You’re supposed to breathe fire, not snort it.”

 

Quistis glared at him like she could shout “REALLY! I hadn’t thought of that!” with her eyes and Seifer had enough grace to look embarrassed. But only slightly. Reaching down, he scratched up a clawful of sticky black swamp mud and held it out to her.

 

“Here,” he said, and when she looked at him incredulously, he said, “Put it on your face. It’s cold.”

 

Quistis glared. It wasn’t her face that hurt, it was her nose and honestly, she had had worse in training. Defiantly dropping her paws from her muzzle, Quistis put on an expression of forced calm as the pain immediately doubled without pressure. 

 

“I’m fine,” she said sternly. “But don’t interrupt me next time.”

 

“Yeah, yeah,” said Seifer. He apparently took the uncovering of her face for a sign and approached with the mud, which made Quistis lean back. 

 

“I don’t want that on my face, Seifer.”

 

“Fine,” he said, flinging it off into the swampy waters. Swiping his claws on a tussock of marsh grass, he groused, “Enjoy your burning face for the next week, then.”

 

Quistis huffed, which sent a new pulse of pain through her head. Nevertheless she managed to say politely, “I appreciate the gesture.”

 

“Whatever.” Seifer looked at her sidelong, his eyes seeming to glow under the curves of his ruby horns. “You’re not smelling blood, are you? That’s bad.”

 

“No, Seifer. It just hurts a little.”

 

“Alright.” He straightened a bit and looked around the swamp. “Well. Fire’s fun and all, but it’s not everything. We can do something else.”

 

Was it annoyance or something… Softer she was feeling? Quistis analyzed the sudden tightening in her chest and decided to go with ‘annoyance’. There was absolutely no point to being charmed by Seifer’s consideration. Absolutely none. Besides, aside from the occasional wicked look, Seifer had been nothing but friendly towards Quistis since she had turned into a dragon and she was not about to make things confusing between the two of them. After all, he was going be stuck in that shape and it would be very unkind to tease him when she was going to turn back human. Really, she was just looking out for him, as it was clear that his judgment toward her could not exactly be trusted…

 

_“He hasn’t said anything about me being his hoard in two weeks… Though we haven’t really talked much, aside from exchanging pleasantries and seeing each other at meals. I wonder what he does all day?”_

 

Abruptly Quistis realized she was staring at Seifer, and more than that, he was staring back. Compelled by curiosity, Quistis resisted the urge to look away and met his gaze steadily, which resulted in Seifer’s eye-slits slimming to near-nothing and a subtle brightening of his scales as he puffed his chest a little. Oh dear. He _was_ really quite handsome. 

 

“Yes?” He asked in that lower, throatier purr that made Quistis swallow. Almost. 

 

“You’re looking pale too,” she said, deliberately contrary. Seifer snorted. 

 

“How dare you? I fly every day. And hunt every other one.”

 

“What do you eat around here?”

 

“Boar. Chocobo. Deer—” Seifer suddenly lifted his head, eyes narrowing. He looked around suspiciously. His abrupt shift had Quistis looking around too, and as she straightened she became aware of a strange smell that was coming up under the marsh gas in such a slow, subtle way that she realized she’d been smelling it for some time. But it wasn’t coming up from the marsh. She took a few deep breaths and turned toward the source of the smell, which was a hillock not too far away covered with grass and otherwise totally innocuous. She started toward it, but Seifer stepped on her paw. He literally reached and stepped on her front foot, hard.

 

“Stay sharp,” he said seriously when Quistis nearly snapped at him. “Someone’s trying to trap us.”

 

Quistis looked again at the hillock. It was a very round hillock. And the grass on it seemed just a little too straight. She backed up just as the strange smell registered in her head as both ‘relaxing’ and ‘dragonsbane’. It smelled so much sweeter in her current shape, which was probably why it soothed dragons as much as it did. Knowing why she was smelling it now, however, and who was probably trying to employ it against her made Quistis feel slightly sick. 

 

She raised her wings and immediately heard an unfortunately familiar hissing noise. Two jolts of pain through each wing made Quistis gasp and Seifer checked her hard with his shoulder, knocking her down before more arrows perforated the air. None of them had come from the hillock, which made Quistis roll to her feet and look to her left as Seifer looked to her right. She couldn’t see anything in the long grass, and what was even more annoying was that instead of just grass around here, there were big puddles and small ponds that no human should have been able to hide in without being seen. Was their camouflage better than the shifting browns and greens favored by the Qu? Or were they using magic to remain hidden?

 

Seifer pressed up along her side, just tall enough that he could sling one of his wings over both of hers. “This is why you need to fly more,” he said, focused but not overly troubled. “Gotta toughen your wings up.”

 

Toughen them up? Quistis glanced at her left wing. It was aching something fierce, like a deep cut on the palm, and her eyes widened when she saw two neat arrow holes through one of her wing webs. They both bled vigorously, but there was no time to wonder about what dragon first-aid might entail. Ahead of Quistis there was a flicker of movement that she initially dismissed as a stray breeze, except between her training and her draconian sight, she realized there was something behind a tall tuft of grass. Seifer clearly saw something on his side too because the sudden snarl of blasting flame at Quistis’s back nearly made her jump, and at once she heard multiple human voices yelling  in shock. Three, it seemed like. She assumed there were that many in front of her, but held her flames in reserve. Her face was still throbbing and Quistis had the feeling that if she tried to breathe fire, she’d be breathing blood too.

 

Their cover blown, the hunters facing Seifer decided to rush. Quistis heard the stomping and splashing of feet and the clatter of weaponry, and despite knowing she should keep an eye on enemies to the rear, she looked over her shoulder. She had been mistaken. Five humans in both swamp camouflage _and_ the remnants of a refined Reflect glittering off them were running towards her and Seifer, two of them with drawn crossbows, one with a sword, and two with long-handled axes that would be a problem. Seifer spat flame again, forcing them to spread out, and Quistis noticed one of the axe users darting forward instead of the side. He ran towards her, which made Quistis glare. She took two steps forward and turned halfway, slinging her long, slim tail like she was cracking her whip. But instead of ripping the weapon out of his hands, she slashed him across the arms with the blade on the end of her tail and smiled grimly when he dropped the axe with a howl of pain. Seifer made an appreciative noise even as he raised his free wing and stopped two crossbow bolts from getting his eyes. The armor-piercing bolts bounced harmlessly off his toughened wing webs, like pebbles being tossed at a canvas tent, but then Quistis heard twang-twang and two longbow arrows sped through the air. Fortunately their aim was off and they hit Seifer’s horns instead of his face, but it was close. 

 

Seifer snarled and flapped his wings hard, flattening the grass around them and temporarily exposing their attackers. There were nine people about, all armed, all looking competent, and maybe with two more people in the hillock if the dragonsbane smoker held anyone in it. Despite her new shape Quistis was nervous. She knew better than most about how to kill dragons, and if someone chained her and Seifer’s heads to the ground and hit in a certain spot behind their horns, they’d be stunned. And then it would take only two or three whacks of an axe to kill them, though it would take many more to actually sever their heads…

 

“Seifer, let’s fly,” she said urgently, looking around.

 

“We can’t,” he said, and then clarified, “Your wings are shot. They’ll shred if we take to the air. And I just flamed, so I can’t fly for another five minutes.”

 

“What!” Quistis couldn’t believe what Seifer was saying. “What do you mean?”

 

Seifer huffed. “I just can’t, alright? Anyway, how many can you take?”

 

“How…” Quistis gulped. In her old shape, she could dispatch three people with ease. In this new one…? “Uh… The three I’m facing.”

 

“Then I’ll get the rest,” said Seifer confidently. “They don’t look armored, so you can bite if you want. Or swat them away. Don’t be nice with your claws, either.”

 

Quistis winced. She had seen the effects of dragon claws on several unlucky squires of the Order, and while none of them had died, none of them took their shirts off in the summertime either. Nevertheless, this was _her_ life on the line here, as well as Seifer’s. Clearly he was not going to abandon her… And Quistis had to shove that squishy feeling away before it got distracting. This was _definitely_ not the time.

 

“On my mark,” said Seifer, lashing his tail and flattening an arc of grass at his back. “Ready… Mark!”

 

He sprang forward, a magnificent fury of claws and fangs that made the hunters scream even as they raised their weapons. Quistis opted not for flash, but for substance. Darting toward her targets, she half-turned again to whip them all with her tail, knocking their feet out from underneath them. Before they could recover, she literally pounced on two of them, careful not to crush them even as she pinned their weapons to their chests. The third one she disarmed by slashing through the string on her longbow, and while that one was gaping in shock, Quistis broke the shaft on the one hunter’s halberd and threw the pieces away, and the other one seemed like he was a mage since he had a mace and nothing else, so she threw his weapon across his marsh and then him too to prevent any more problems. Quistis didn’t mind killing when she/ had to, but this was not a case when she _had_ to, not when she was so much bigger and stronger. Leaving the hunters boggling at her mercy, Quistis turned to see if Seifer needed help.

 

He was… Doing very well. He was much less considerate than she was, and was laying into the hunters with a casual mastery that had blood flying now and probably limbs flying later. Two hunters were down, one of them possibly dead and the other staunching a huge cut that had made the muscle of his thigh snap up into his hip like a ball. One hunter was actively fleeing, screaming and running a path through the marsh grass that a blind bull could follow. The other three were still trying to hurt Seifer somehow and it was clear they were used to working in a team judging from the way they tried to lure him out and take turns hitting him. At first Quistis thought Seifer wasn’t falling for it, but then she saw him lunge at someone who had the point of his sword down on purpose and immediately the others moved in, raising an axe and a mace respectively. They were aiming at the base of his neck and wings, no doubt looking to paralyze him…

 

“Seifer! Look out!”

 

Seifer didn’t seem to hear her. But then he dug one foot into the ground, swung his entire body in an arc, and smashed all three hunters into each other by essentially batting them with his side. They went flying and landed in a sloppy, splashy mess some distance away, and Seifer pulled his claws out of the mud with a very loud squelching noise as the swamp mud reluctantly gave him his paws back. 

 

“How are yours?” Seifer asked, flinging the mud off as soon as he was free.

 

“Well enough,” said Quistis, looking back at her targets. They were both flat on their backs, eyes wide with fear, probably hoping she’d forgotten all about them. She set her tail across their chests and they went even stiller. Now satisfied they wouldn’t try to attack her while her back was turned, Quistis looked at Seifer once more. “You?”

 

“Fine,” said Seifer, fanning his wings. There was blood spattered across his legs and chest but judging from the proud look on his face, none of it was his. Wiping his claws on a bit of grass, he said, “The day a bunch of low-level adventurers get the drop on _me,_ is the day I stop living.”

 

The boast was a bit too close to home for her liking right now but Quistis suppressed a shiver. “Do you deal with these kinds of things often?”

 

“Often enough to be annoying,” said Seifer, coming over to her to inspect her prisoners. “Apparently the color of my hide is unheard of and people want to make something shiny out of it. But you know, maybe if they kill me, they’ll find themselves with a human corpse instead of a dragon’s. Heh!”

 

It was the first time Seifer had mentioned anything about his own humanity. Quistis hesitated a second before asking, “Have you ever thought about turning back?”

 

“No.” Seifer looked over her captives, one of whom started praying immediately. He poked that one with his claw, making the man pray even harder and shut his eyes. “I’ve been a dragon longer than I’ve been a human. What’s the point?”

 

“Well… You wouldn’t have hunters coming after you.”

 

“What, these things?” Seifer poked the man again, a little harder this time. “They’re flies. Knights are a problem sometimes, but they take so long to train and they’re so noisy coming up that I have plenty of time to deal with them. In a hundred years of life, _you’re_ the one I had the most problems with.”

 

“But your scars—“

 

Seifer rolled his shoulders, making light glitter off his many silvery marks. “Fujin and Raijin. Real sea serpents. Behemoths. Once, a pack of starving dire wolves. No human has ever marked me except for you.”

 

Quistis opened her mouth to say how that shouldn’t be taken as a guarantee of anything and instead found herself gagging as something flew directly into her jaws. She hacked it back out immediately, expecting to see an exceptionally stupid bird or something of the like, but instead a little bladder of sweet dragonsbane fell out of her mouth and into the swampy ground at her feet. It split open upon hitting the ground but Quistis immediately swept a pile of marsh grass over it before the powder could waft up and stun her. At the same time she heard Seifer choke, and when she looked at him in alarm he was backing up, shaking his head with plumes of purplish powder roiling from his mouth as a torn bag flapped from his fangs. Quistis cried out in alarm as Seifer slowly sank to his knees, his head starting to droop. 

 

“Get,” he gasped at her. Quistis instead ran up to him, fanning the powered dragonsbane away as much as possible.

 

“Drink water!” She commanded. “Spit it out!”

 

“Too late,” said Seifer, his eyelids fluttering. Quistis heard a soft ‘snict’ behind her and saw her prisoners, the mage she had tossed, and three other people approaching. Two of them had pouches of dragonsbane loaded into slings and were approaching cautiously. The mage and the newcomer were also holding chains that glittered in Quistis’s sight and translated to her brain as ‘magical’. Quistis immediately put herself in front of Seifer and took a deep breath through her burned muzzle, ignoring the flare of pain. 

 

“Go away!” She shouted at the approaching humans. “Don’t force me to kill you!”

 

“Oh thank god,” one of the human said, which made Quistis’s spirits lift—and then fall hard as he added, “We won’t have to chase the other mate down. We might be home before nightfall.”

 

“Hold on, what about eggs?” Someone else said. “If we kill them both now, we’ll never see any eggs.”

 

“They’re too young to have eggs,” said the newcomer, who sounded older than the others. “This is a newly mated pair. Accounts for the stupidity of playing in the open too.”

 

“Young love,” someone said, and snickers went over the group. 

 

Quistis snarled. It wasn’t a cheap thing like a human might produce, but a roiling, boiling, growing thunderhead that started in her chest and vibrated down her long throat to hit the air like a summer storm. The humans froze at the sound of it, but did not flee. Quistis glared at them, unconsciously lowering her head like a snake so she was just slightly taller than the humans but still able to see everything they might do. Unconsciously too she flared her wings, hiding Seifer from the hunters, and swept her long tail around to keep the blade ready for attack. 

 

“Careful, boys,” said the leader, watching Quistis warily. “The Silver Dragon’s never been a pushover, this Sunset one won’t be either.”

 

Sunset, hmm? For these people, at least. Quistis took a deep breath that made her ribs ache and her stomach swell. Her face went from throbbing to burning, but she barely noticed as protective fury rose in her blood and her chest started to heat up again. Once again her gums started itching, but this time Quistis was not distracted by the situation. She glared at the hunters as they approached, and a last shred of mercy made her point her head at the ground just in front of them before she snapped her mouth open. A thick column of white-hot fire that burned off into shreds of red and green flame blasted from her mouth, scorching the marsh grass to nothing and firing the damp earth to clay. Steam boiled into the air. And there was a loud, muffled series of booms that thrummed through Quistis’s claws and made the hunters look around in sudden fear. A second later one of them went flying as the ground underneath her feet exploded. Marsh gas. Apparently Quistis’s kind of fire _could_ do something to it. 

 

“Holy shit!” One of the hunters yelped, staring at Quistis in shock. “It breathes a lot hotter than the other one!”

 

Quistis screamed another bolt of fire at him, now more certain of her aim. He managed to dodge with a curse. Meanwhile the other hunters rapidly regrouped and started quickening their approach, correctly deducing that getting closer meant getting into Quistis’s blind spot. She spat short bursts of fire at them, but only succeeded in scattering and not hitting them. The ones with the dragonsbane pouches loaded their slings again, their eyes on her jaws. Quistis first clenched her teeth, then after a thought opened her mouth instead. As she’d predicted, they threw the pouches. Quistis held her breath, rose up on her back legs, and flapped as hard as she could, making the little pouches fly back before they could hit her. They exploded harmlessly on the ground. The hunters boggled.

 

“What the hell?!” One of them blurted out.

 

Quistis resisted the urge to lash her tail in satisfaction, concentrating instead on what to do next. These hunters were falling into the same trap that she had when she’d first fought Seifer: they didn’t think she could be smart. So what to do next?

 

_“Kill them. Kill them all. It would be easy. And not even the first time you’ve done it. They deserve it.”_

 

In her human shape, Quistis would not have hesitated. But in a dragon’s shape, the desire to protect oneself was a far second to a raging bloodlust that made her resist violence out of principle. What if giving in to the dragon’s instincts froze her into this shape? Sudden doubt made Quistis tense up even as the hunters began to approach again.

 

Then without warning, the swamp silently exploded. Quistis ducked her head, flinging her wings over her head and Seifer’s as the marsh waters surged up like they were falling toward the sky, and the most dreadful groaning suddenly filled the air. It sounded like the roar of the sea during sky-breaking storms, and Quistis couldn’t help but shut her eyes as the horrible noise rattled deep into her flesh and bones. Seifer’s head was under the base of her neck and she felt him lift his head slightly, as well as chuckle. But what he was laughing about, she didn’t have time to ask. The water had been falling up toward the sky before but now it was suddenly rushing around them like it was being pulled somewhere. There were a few light thumps against Quistis’s back legs and sides and then nothing for a while. The waters receded. In the silence after the strangeness, Quistis cautiously lifted her wings and looked around. The swamp was totally drenched and still half-flooded, but every trace of the human hunters was gone down to their fake hillock. But Fujin and Raijin were there, both of them picking through the grass without an apparent care in the world.

 

“FOUND,” said Fujin triumphantly, picking a mage’s mace up out of the swamp mud. In her grip, the mud fell off like floured dough, leaving the mace itself as bright as the day it had been forged. Raijin looked over and hummed in approval before going back to his spot in the swamp.

 

“Was that you two?” Quistis asked, astonished. “With the water?”

 

“YAH.” 

 

“Thank you!”

 

Both dragons grunted and didn’t look up, but seemed pleased at the acknowledgement. 

 

“What happened to the humans?” Quistis asked, suddenly wondering if Fujin and Raijin had drowned them all. The thought perturbed her. Killing someone in combat was one thing, but deliberately drowning them was a different and unnecessary kind of ruthlessness. 

 

“Eh, they’re probably washed a mile downstream by now,” said Raijin with a rippling shrug. “They’re not dead, but they’ll be sleeping like it for the next week or two.”

 

Quistis sighed in relief. She was not worried about the hunters’ wellbeing overly much, but it was nice to know that Fujin and Raijin weren’t murderers. 

 

“How did you know we were in trouble?” Quistis asked, making them exchange glances. “Were you following us?”

 

“SEIFER,” said Fujin, looking at her friend with a scowl. Quistis followed her line of sight and saw that Seifer was now completely flat on the ground, eyes half-closed and his mouth open just enough that he appeared to be drooling into the swamp. He looked the definition of the word when Fujin scornfully said, “STUPID.”

 

“Yeah, we keep telling him to switch up his hunting and sunning grounds, ya know?” Raijin pulled a halberd out of the ground, studied its make, and finding nothing of note, tossed it over his shoulder as he said, “But he’s stubborn. He does what he wants.”

 

“STUPID,” said Fujin pointedly again to Seifer. Seifer made a noise like he wanted to swear at her, but by now the dragonsbane was so throughly in his system that he couldn’t even coordinate a word. He seemed to have as much structure in him as  a melted pancake. 

 

“How long will it take for him to recover?” Quistis asked the older dragons, who stopped their treasure hunting to inspect their friend. Seifer’s growl increased as they started poking him in the face and prying his mouth open with their long, surprisingly strong whiskers. 

 

“He should be back to normal in about a day,” said Raijin. “The hunters weren’t kidding around this time, ya know. I’m surprised he’s still conscious.”

 

“They called him the Silver Dragon. Is he well known?”

 

Fujin and Raijin grunted. “SHINY. THEREFORE, PRESTIGIOUS.”

 

Prestigious? Quistis nearly said there’s been nothing like that about Seifer in the Order’s books, but then remembered her own motivations for going after him in the first place. Just because she hadn’t been after his hide didn’t mean she hadn’t been after the admiration that vanquishing him would get her… She squirmed a little.  Even supposing she turned back to human the next day, Quistis knew she’d never be any kind of normal knight now and reluctantly she had to admit that Sir Loire’s frustratingly common mercies had their appeal. Though she definitely didn’t want to stay a dragon either. The hunters had called her the Sunset Dragon, so she was now a prestigious target too…

 

Fujin poked Quistis in the wing, making her jump and then remember her arrow wounds. But when she looked, there was nothing other than two irregular trails of dried, flaky blood to show where she’d been marked. Quistis fanned her wings experimentally but felt no pain or pulling, and silently she marveled at a dragon’s recuperative powers. She certainly couldn’t heal that fast when she was human.

 

“Let’s get you back to the village,” said Raijin to Seifer, who grumbled. “Unless you _want_ to get nibbled by gators until you get better. Betcha they don’t eat dragon very much, ya know.”

 

Seifer made a noise that sounded like it wanted to be a word. Probably a rude one. But the dragonsbane had paralyzed his tongue just as much as the rest of his body, so he ended up sounding like an old drunk instead of a fearsome creature of might and magic. Now that the danger was gone, Quistis couldn’t help but snicker just a little. 

 

Raijin slithered underneath Seifer’s wing and rolled in such a way that Seifer ended up on top of his back. Fujin fastidiously tucked Seifer’s front and back legs up underneath him so they wouldn’t drag when Raijin started to move, and Quistis did the same with Seifer’s wings. She was glad for their help. Obviously Seifer couldn’t lie around in the open while he waited to recover: more hunters might reappear, or some kind of opportunistic scavenger, and Quistis was not totally confident in her ability to protect him while he healed. Dragons were powerful, but far from invincible. Not that Seifer appeared to acknowledge that. He had just enough muscular control back that he could scowl. 

 

“Auu’o’uuaammmfaaaghhhh, aaa’aee’ii…” Seifer slurred unintelligibly, making Quistis laugh again. She saw his pupils dilate with annoyance. “Oouu’ooo’aa’aa’eee, iiiaahaaa’aaa’ooo.”

 

“Yes, she _does_ have a nice backside,” Raijin quipped, making Seifer squall in wordless outrage and Quistis laugh even harder. With a little hop Raijin took off into the sky, holding Seifer steady and wriggling just the last third of his long serpentine body. Fujin jumped up to steady him on the left and Quistis came up on the right, though she couldn’t fly as evenly as Fujin and Raijin and kept losing altitude. 

 

In any case it was an easy flight back to the village and Quistis even managed a graceful landing. Raijin deposited Seifer into his sleeping cave while Fujin went in search of a healer, and a few minutes after Seifer had been arranged into a slightly less boneless-looking pile in his dwelling, Quina was there with a big bowl, a bigger spoon, and a sledge full of herbs in large glass jars. S/he poked Seifer in the lips and gums with his/her fork, which made Seifer growl in irritation. 

 

“Moushenlong,” s/he pronounced with authority. “Lots and lots of moushenlong. Stupid. Why you no spit?”

 

“Arglrlglalhghaghh…”

 

As Fujin and Raijin chuckled at Seifer’s response, Quina started taking herbs out of the glass jars, dumping liberal amounts into the bowl, and smashing them all together with the back side of the big spoon. After everything was pressed into a homogenous powder, Quina started adding what looked like random amounts of clear, sparkling water to the bowl and then stirring it in until s/he had a sort of mud. Then s/he began vigorously kneading the mixture into dough that turned from brown to red to gold, and rolled the stuff into a fist-sized ball. Quistis was not sure why she hadn’t realized that dragon-sized pills would be so large, but there they were. Fujin and Raijin looked similarly interested in the process, both of them watching Quina with a hunter’s still focus. 

 

With an amusing brusqueness, Quina levered Seifer’s mouth open with his/her long spoon and then fearlessly shoved the pill as far down Seifer’s throat as s/he could reach, his/her arm disappearing all the way up to his/her shoulder. Seifer gagged but the spoon kept him from biting down even though it bent somewhat alarmingly. Retrieving his/her limb and sitting back, Quina squatted on his/her haunches and waited with an intensity that had Quistis holding her own breath. However she was still taken aback when Seifer suddenly sat up straight, eyes ablaze and wings banging off the sides of his shelter as he swung them up for flight. Fujin and Raijin exclaimed in surprise, Raijin even half-rearing in his shock. Quistis was impressed too. The concentration required to render a dragon of Seifer’s size and weight to the state he’d been in was already intense, so how much stronger did this medicine have to be? And exactly how much could Quina do?

 

“Ho,” said Quina, unperturbed. “How feel?”

 

S/he dodged with aplomb as Seifer spat the spoon at her/him, the utensil spinning end over end like a weapon before bouncing off the ground next to Quina. 

 

“Were you trying to choke me to death?!” He demanded in outrage.

 

Quina grunted in satisfaction and stood up. “Loud voice. Is okay. Call if you fall down.”

 

“QUINA!”

 

“Blah!” Quina spun around, red face mask flapping like a flag, and looked furtive and guilty as Quale came up to the dragon stables. Quistis was astonished at xis appearance. Up until now she had seen Quale in plain camouflaged clothing of browns and greens, but right now Quale was wearing a brilliantly white robe with a very fancy matching hat, and patterns of eye-watering complexity dazzled at xis hems. Xis face mask was gold instead of red and went all the way down to the floor, covered every inch of the way with more patterns done in gold thread. Quale looked quite dignified even as xe pointed at Quina in a temper.

 

“What you do?” Xe demanded. 

 

“Fix guest,” said Quina, sullen but far from defeated. “Moushenlong poisoning. Guest better.”

 

“Too fast! Moushenlong poison—”

 

“Fix with grand centipede and wood ear.” Quina puffed a bit. “Makes healing time fast. Very fast.”

 

“And vomit?” Quale asked severely, which made Quistis look at Seifer in alarm. Seifer looked down at his chest and stomach with sudden misgiving. 

 

“Fix with dried and powdered red ginger skin,” said Quina immediately. “Lots for dragon weight.”

 

Quale looked immediately at Seifer. “Open mouth,” xe said brusquely. “Tongue. Out.”

 

Seifer obliged, letting his long tongue roll out almost double the length of his muzzle. Quistis was shocked. She wondered if her own was that long and got a sudden strange mental image of Seifer licking his eyeballs like a lizard. Shuddering it away, she nearly missed Quale taking out his long spoon and poking Seifer’s tongue in a few places.

 

“Hmmm,” xe went, sounding very serious. “Hmmm. HMMMM.”

 

“What?” Seifer demanded, rearing back up. “What’s that mean?”

 

“Hmmm,” said Quale, looking sternly at Quina. Quina returned xis gaze defiantly, making Quistis smile a little in recognition; she’d had that look on her face no few times when Sir Loire was trying to talk her out of something. And while Quale seemed much more dutiful than Sir Loire, the frustration from Quina was similar nevertheless. 

 

“No decoct without me again,” xe said finally. “Understand?”

 

“Yes, Master Quale.”

 

“Clean up. Go.”

 

Quina nodded briskly and started packing away the herbal things. Quale meanwhile looked at Seifer and Quistis. 

 

“So you two encountered hunters outside the swamp,” he said formally. “Aside from the dragonsbane, did either of you come to harm?”

 

“We’re fine,” said Quistis, but Quale looked her over. Xis eyes fell on her wings, which still had a few flecks of dried blood on them.

 

“Fine now,” xe said sternly. “You _must_ be careful. The enchantment on you is strong, and the fact that you have Qu blood makes it stronger still.”

 

“What?” Quistis reared back, startled. “But you said I’d be able to change back because of it.”

 

“You can be frozen and freed for the same reason,” said Quale, slipping xis hands into xis sleeves to stand in a wise way. “A Qu’s mind is their greatest weapon and defense. If you think of yourself as a human, you will become one. But the longer you think of yourself as a dragon—and this includes your hidden mind, your emotional mind—then the more you will become one.”

 

Quistis shivered, remembering the bloodlust in the swamp. How fortunate she hadn’t given in! And just because she hadn’t made any progress turning back into a human until now didn’t mean she wanted any progress to become negative.

 

“This includes injury,” said Quale, nodding at her wings. “Your hidden mind begins to think that since you have healed in this shape, you are now _more_ this shape. I will not tell you to fly or hunt or be healthy, but be _careful._ Please.”

 

“Yes, Master Quale,” said Quistis, inclining her head. Seifer grumbled and fluffed his wings, which made Quale look at him sternly.

 

“And you, please do not lead our child into reckless circumstances,” xe said, which made Seifer’s grumble swell into a growl. “She is not as experienced as you. She also has much to lose. If you care for her, you will value her.”

 

“She’s my hoard,” Seifer snapped, baring his teeth like he wanted to bite Quale. Quistis’s draconian heart lurched at the sound of the word, or maybe it was just that silly infatuation she kept trying to ignore. As Quistis beat her unseemly emotions back into place, Seifer shouted, “Of _course_ I value her!”

 

“Leading her into an area with hunters about says otherwise.”

 

“They weren’t there when I scouted the place! Do you think I’m an idiot?”

 

Quale looked at Seifer pointedly, which made Seifer blink and then swell with temper. The subtle increase in his mass made his scars seem to gleam especially bright, which made Quistis wince a little for his sake. 

 

Nevertheless she was totally unprepared for Seifer lunging at Quale. His mouth was not open. Clearly he meant to knock the Qu down. But Quale sidestepped the blow and then with stunning speed and precision, hit Seifer in the back of the head with the butt end of his large ceremonial fork. It was exactly the place that Sir Loire had shown Quistis where to hit, the one spot underneath a dragon’s horns that would temporarily paralyze them, and for the second time in as many hours, Seifer fell to the ground in a loose, uncontrolled pile. The shock on his face would have been funny if Quistis had not been so horrified at his near-attack on Quale, nor dismayed by a sudden hot rush of fury that Quale had dared to hit Seifer. 

 

Immediately Fujin and Raijin reared up like snakes, eyes blazing and short but numerous fangs bared in temper. Until now Quistis had not thought of either of them as looking particularly ferocious, what with their slightly camel-like heads, their blunt and fuzz-covered horns, and their very short limbs on their very long bodies. But now they both blazed with power she could feel more than see, and in Raijin’s case, lightning began crackling over his bronze hide. Wind whirled around Fujin in a tight cyclone outlined with debris. Their eyes went from placid gold to deep, threatening red.

 

“FIX,” Fujin bellowed at Quale, while Raijin’s bronze scales turned a darker, more threatening shade of brown.

 

Quale eyed Fujin and Raijin. Then without a word to either of them, xe hit Seifer again in a slightly different place at the back of the skull and Seifer surged back up onto all four legs, which immediately made both Fujin and Raijin settle back down and release whatever rage-given powers they’d nearly summoned. Would the waters of the swamp here have come to their call and drowned Quale? 

 

_“And what about me? My own temper wasn’t any less hot than theirs when I saw Seifer fall. Oh dear, I’ve been in this shape too long…”_

 

Seifer now eyed Quale warily. The elder Qu eyed him sternly until Seifer backed up and ever so slightly inclined his head in careful respect. Quale was small and old but clearly not fragile, and moreover he seemed incapable of being intimidated. Or perhaps xe had faced scarier things.

 

“I will allow you this one instance of temper,” said Quale to Seifer. “Misbehave again, and you will be made to leave the Village. We cannot have an undisciplined dragon around our young. Is that clear?”

 

Seifer lashed his tail hard enough to fling the dried reeds and grasses of his cave floor into the walls. But though he looked mad, his voice was deliberately calm as he said, “Don’t worry about me.”

 

“I would be most happy not to,” said Quale coolly. Xe then turned back to Quistis. “Please take the rest of the day to relax and settle. We will resume training tomorrow.”

 

“Yes, Master Quale.” 

 

Quale then looked at Fujin and Raijin, who were half-sitting up in what seemed like regal, aloof postures. Xe had always addressed them formally, so it took Quistis quite by surprise when xe told them plainly, “Your ward is spoiled,” and left. Even more surprising, both Fujin and Raijin looked embarrassed as soon as Quale couldn’t see them and both of them looked at Seifer with narrowed eyes, which made him hunker down against his shoulders. Quistis then remembered that by Seifer’s own admission, no few of his scars were from _them._ A surge of protectiveness made Quistis rise, distracting them all. 

 

“He’s already been scolded enough,” she said to Fujin and Raijin. “And he said he wouldn’t happen again.”

 

“He told Quale not to worry, which is not the same thing,” said Raijin, looking back at Seifer. Fortunately he didn’t seem particularly angry, just rather annoyed. “What were you thinking, Seifer?”

 

“He called me stupid!”

 

“ _We_ call you stupid all the time!”

 

“Yeah, but I _like_ you two!” Seifer retorted, and as an afterthought added, “Jerks.”

 

“DUMMY.”

 

“Dingdong,” said Raijin, and quite mysteriously all three of them relaxed. Quistis was confused, but not so much so that she needed to know why. Clearly they were all quite close, scars notwithstanding. 

 

“REST,” Fujin ordered Seifer. “RELAX. EAT.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Seifer rolled his shoulders once, twice, and on the third time there was a loud cracking noise that nearly made Quistis jump out of her skin. But Seifer sighed deeply. “Ahhh, there they go.”

 

“Were those your wings?”

 

“Yeah. Normally they get back into place by themselves, but sometimes they need a little help.” He rolled his shoulders again, nodding in satisfaction when there was no cracking again. “Well. I didn’t need to go anywhere again today anyway. Time to get something to eat.”

 

 _“He’s so calm about all this,”_ Quistis thought, admiration mixing with dismay. In so many aspects Seifer seemed so suited to being a dragon, but it was hard for Quistis to overlook the fact that he had needed to be taught how to fly, and that he couldn’t fly and flame at the same time. What other ‘instinctive’ dragon things did he not know how to do? Would they hurt him in the future? 

 

_“Would they hurt me too?”_

 

“Hungry, Quistis?” Seifer asked, looking at her sidelong. 

 

“No,” she said, mantling her wings. “I’m… I’m a little tired. I think I’ll rest.”

 

“Come on, it’s still ear—OW!”

 

“SLEEP,” said Fujin serenely while Seifer madly rubbed one of his eyes; she had poked him with her whisker. Raijin looped one of his around Seifer’s nearest horn and tugged until Seifer came along, grumbling and walking three-legged so he could still rub his eye. A chuckle that didn’t quite make it out of Quistis’s mouth nevertheless puffed from her muzzle as the three dragons left and Quistis went into her ‘cave’ with a slightly less heavy heart. Seifer would be fine for now, as would she. But more than ever, Quistis wanted to be human again. As a dragon, it was likely she would be dependent on the help of others until she found her footing, if she ever did. But as a human, she could definitely take care of herself and others too. 

 

Quistis missed that. She missed the certainty of knowing herself as a human, or at least the illusion of knowing herself. Because if she really _did_ know herself, the enchantment holding her should be broken, and yet here she was, scaled and winged and entirely inhuman. Quistis sighed, the weight of her worries seemingly pressing her into the ground. The optimism of two weeks ago was becoming very hard to hold onto and the creeping dread that she might never become human again started to rise much faster than Quistis could convince it away. A knifelike sensation formed in her neck, familiar and yet so much more painful as a very long draconian throat locked up with tears. With no one around to see her, Quistis hid her face underneath her wing and cried. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I smashed some Chinese words together for "moushenlong". I was told that 'mou' means 'absence of' in Cantonese, hence 'moushenlong' could mean 'no more dragon'. A lot less nice-sounding than dragonsbane, right? I think so.


	8. Hopping to Conclusions

“LEAVING.”

 

Seifer stared at Fujin and Raijin, though only Fujin met his eyes. Raijin bated uncomfortably, whiskers twisting uncomfortably and asymmetrically. 

 

“Why?” Seifer asked his two old friends, stunned. 

 

“BORED,” said Fujin, gesturing around her with a flick of her whiskers. At the moment, the three of them were not in the swamp. There was nothing for them to do there even if Quistis wasn’t studying (which she did all day, most days), so to kill time Seifer and the Far Eastern dragons scouted the area around the marsh for treasure. Though magical tomes and art supplies were nonexistent, there were still plenty of rare and interesting things that could be later be bartered for pertinent stuff, and so far Fujin and Raijin had amassed a tidy pile of sellable objects. Seifer thought they were having fun, but now that he thought about it, both of them had become kind of short-tempered over the past couple days…

 

“Yeah, Seifer… It’s been more than two months already,” said Raijin, making Seifer boggle. “And that’s a long time to leave the cave alone.”

 

Seifer fanned his wings, hiding his dismay with annoyance. “No one’s forcing you to stay.”

 

“Seifer—“

 

“BYE.”

 

“Fujin!” Raijin looped his near whisker around one of his mate’s horns as she started to rise into the air. She pulled her head free and started wafting off into the sky. Seifer growled softly but couldn’t exactly blame Fujin; being brusque was just the way she was, and if it really had been over two months, no wonder she wanted to leave. Being away from her hoard for so long had to be hard. Seifer couldn’t imagine leaving Quistis alone for that length of time, even if he didn’t talk to her every day. He still saw her, either resting on the other side of their shared ‘caves’ or meditating silently with Quale in the swamp. And though she was becoming quieter and paler and so slow and hesitant, she was still _his._ Seifer sighed and looked at Raijin with mixed guilt and irritation. 

 

“I suppose you’re going too?”

 

“Enh…” Raijin bated again. “Well, nothing really to stay for, ya know? I mean, we thought the Qu could help, but Quistis is just… Ya know?”

 

“I know.” Seifer sighed. It was easier to talk about worrisome things with Raijin, who was able to listen without judging or making immediate suggestions. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her, Raijin. The other day I saw stuff leaking out of her eyes.”

 

“Stuff?” Raijin cocked his head. “What do you mean? What did it look like?”

 

“Oily. Wet.”

 

“CLEAR?” Came Fujin’s voice from over his head, and Seifer glanced up to see Fujin coming back down; apparently she was tired of waiting for Raijin to follow.

 

“Yeah,” said Seifer, nodding. “Is she sick or something? It wasn’t bloody at all, but… I don’t know. It’s not normal, right? It’s never happened to me.”

 

Fujin landed and looked at Raijin, who nodded back at her. Then to unison to Seifer, they said, “Tears.”

 

“Humans cry when they’re sad,” explained Raijin, while Fujin started to bate a little. “If she’s crying in dragon form, she’s _really_ hurt.”

 

“But how? Her body’s not injured.”

 

“HEARTSICK.” Fujin eyed Seifer narrowly, her camelid lips thinning with consideration. Then unexpectedly she said, “ _You_ cried. When you first came to us.”

 

“Like hell I did, I’d remember.”

 

“No. You were sick. We thought you would die.” Fujin curled her paws under her chest and sat on them contemplatively. “You cried. And you called for your mother.”

 

Seifer bristled, unaccountably embarrassed. “I’d never! Why’d I want someone I can’t remember?!”

 

“Don’t worry about it, Seifer,” said Raijin soothingly, while Fujin just looked at Seifer with a soft-looking gaze that made Seifer want to hiss at her. Unperturbed, she blinked at him slowly like a cat and then looked at Raijin. 

 

“ENLIGHTEN.”

 

“Who?”

 

“QUISTIS.”

 

“Oh.” Raijin pursed his lips, thoughtfully stroking his long black beard with both whiskers. “Yeah. Guess we could.”

 

“What are you two on about?!”

 

“Well, we started off as other things, ya know? And obviously we like being dragons.” Raijin shrugged as Fujin stood up. “We can talk to Quistis about changing shape and stuff. Maybe it’ll help her be not so sad.”

 

Seifer settled, another emotion pushing its way into his chest. “Thanks,” he said grudgingly, making his two old friends incline their heads. “I don’t know what to say to her. She snapped at me the last time I tried to get her to play. She’s so… Focused. She’s looking so hard at what she wants that she can’t see what she has.”

 

Fujin and Raijin glanced at each other, but kept whatever their thoughts were about that to themselves. But Fujin patted Seifer on the nose with her whisker before they left and Raijin gave Seifer an encouraging shoulder-bump too, putting him in a somewhat more inspired mood. As they went back to the swamp, Seifer looked around the grasslands for anything that might eat some time or provide a solution to Quistis’s sadness. It occurred to him just then that he didn’t know very much about her aside from her desire to be a human and a knight, and he had no idea what actually made her happy. The knowledge shook and infuriated him. So after stewing about it for a while, he went in search of someone who interacted with Quistis when she was awake more often than he did and found Quina to the north of the swamp, wading the twisted mangrove roots with hunting fork held high and focusing on something Seifer couldn’t see. He landed on a dry-ish bit of land and wended his way through the interwoven roots until he found a place large enough to rest. Quina pointed at him threateningly with his/her fork but never stopped looking among the roots. 

 

“Stay still,” s/he said imperiously. “No more shaking ground, okay? Looking.”

 

“Yeah, yeah. I need to talk to you.”

 

“Fine. What you want?”

 

“How do I make Quistis stop crying?”

 

“Eh?” Quina stared at him, focus fully redirected. “Why?”

 

“Because crying means her heart’s hurt. So how do you fix that?”

 

Quina snorted. And then s/he started laughing, which made Seifer growl. In response Quina blew his/her long red mask, making it waggle like a long tongue. 

 

“So easy, so easy,” s/he said mockingly. “Path to heart, though stomach. Everyone knows.”

 

Seifer’s jaw dropped in incredulous dismay. What the hell kind of knowledge of anatomy did Quina have? Especially for a so-called healer? He nearly said this aloud before Quina kept talking.

 

“You want to heal Quistis’s heartsick? Okay. You want know how?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Frog.”

 

Seifer scowled. “I’m not getting frogs for you.”

 

“No, dummy-dummy. _You_ get frog for _her.”_ Quina made a series of exaggeratedly patient motions with his/her fork, saying, “Golden frog is best. Most sweet. Most tender. Make heart full-happy and calm. But any frog do.”

 

“Oh. Alright. How many do I need?”

 

“More is better, but not more than fifty.” 

 

“So… Fifty.”

 

Quina chuckled. “If you can find.”

 

“Where do I look?”

 

“Marsh.”

 

“Well, obviously! _Where_ in the marsh?”

 

“With water.” Quina seemed to be taking a great deal of delight in Seifer’s frustration. He lashed his tail, flattening a section of sawgrass nearly large enough to lie down in.

 

“I don’t have time to look! Where do I find the damn frogs?”

 

Quina snickered. “You want me tell you? You want map?” 

 

“Whatever! The sooner I have the frogs, the better.”

 

Quina’s eyes gleamed. S/he pointed at a spot of mud among the mangrove roots that looked like every other spot and said, “Then you get eel for me. Five eel. Only live and unbroken counts.”

 

Seifer eyed Quina suspiciously. “What do you mean, ‘unbroken’?”

 

“You dragon. You strong. Break-a eel is easy.” Quina pointed at the mud again and said, “You get for me, okay? Okay.”

 

“Fiiine.” Seifer wended his way over to where Quina was pointing. “Now how—“

 

“Shush. Get ready.”

 

Seifer shut his mouth. Quina started poking the mud with his/her fork, stabbing with a certain speed and deliberation that implied lots of practice. The moment before Seifer started to get bored, there was a flicker of movement in the mud and then the head of a large, angry-looking eel appeared. It had bulbous red eyes, long and jagged teeth, and most surprising of all it was a bright golden color that looked almost unreal. Immediately the eel bit down on Quina’s fork, apparently mistaking it for prey, and Seifer saw his chance.

 

“Careful! Careful!” Quina yelled as Seifer grabbed the eel in one paw. It was _not_ easy. At once the eel began wriggling through his toes, creating the most awful tickling sensation that nearly made Seifer drop it on instinct. At the same time the eel shed copious amounts of thick slime that was both disgusting _and_ disturbingly warm, and Seifer had to keep twisting and rolling his paw to keep it from getting away. As he tried to pull the eel from its place in the mangrove roots, he found that he could not; the eel seemed to be knotted around the base of the mangrove tree it popped out from and while Seifer could definitely yank the thing out, it would definitely break. So Seifer gritted his teeth and just leaned back, concentrating on keeping his grip on the living noodle. It worked. After what seemed like way too long a time, the eel finally lost enough strength that Seifer could pull it slowly and carefully out of its hole, and Quina chortled with glee as the immense length of the eel came into view. It had to be at least twenty feet long and as thick as a human thigh at the fattest point. Seifer had no idea how any kind of non-dragon could harvest such a thing. 

 

“Good, good!” Quina immediately pointed at a woven basket sitting in the marsh waters, a secure type that looked like it could be pulled shut with a very thick drawstring. “Stick in there. Four more to go.”

 

Seifer flung slime off his paw and groaned. He hoped the frogs were worth it.

 

/\

 

True to his/her word, Quina showed Seifer where to find frogs, but after ten minutes of watching Seifer failing to catch them and nearly dying laughing from the result (‘like cat try catch fleas!’), s/he took pity on Seifer or maybe just stepped in before he torched the marsh in frustration. Seifer came very close to torching Quina when he found out the Qu actually actually had fifty frogs on hand, or more accurately their salted legs preserved in a larder under his/her house. Naturally the legs had to be de-salted, and the easiest way to do that was by cooking them. For one more eel Quina made Seifer two huge cauldrons of frog leg soup with a bunch of other foods and herbs chucked into them, but was extremely emphatic that Seifer only ate out of the pot with the white enameled lid. The black one was for Quistis. 

 

“Is special for health,” said Quina firmly but mysteriously. Seifer would have pressed for more information but he was tired and hungry from wrestling stupid slippery eels and the soup smelled absolutely fantastic. It was one thing for all his food to get naturally cooked on the way down thanks to his fire chamber, but real cooking with flavor was considerably harder to come by.

  
It was early evening now; between hunting, hauling, and cooking, Seifer had lost most of the day. In the dimming light he walked as carefully as possible to get the pots to the temporary caves, using his wing joints as additional points of contact for added balance. Seifer was not aware that Quistis was there and was was watching him come up until he was nearly to the caves.

 

“Do you need some help?” She asked, nearly startling him into dropping the cauldrons.

 

“No, I’ve got it.”

 

“That looks really uncomfortable.”

 

“You get used to it. Here,” he said, setting the cauldron with the black-enameled lid in front of her. “Eat up.”

 

“What?” Her eyes widened. Even with her scales becoming paler with sadness, her eyes still maintained their bright and intelligent blue. Fortunately Seifer was hungry enough not to get lost staring in them for long. 

 

“You’ve been out of sorts,” he said. “And Quina said fixing your heart meant putting stuff in your stomach. So, eat.”

 

Quistis blinked at him. And then she started laughing, which Seifer nearly took offense to except it had been weeks since he’d heard her laugh and the sound of it sent a shiver of delight tickling under his scales. 

 

“Thank you,” she said, taking the lid off the cauldron. “It smells wonderful. What’s in there?”

 

“Frog legs. Mushrooms. Other stuff.” Seifer sat down too and pulled the lid off his pot. The mixed smells made his jaws ache so hard that Seifer had a sudden vision of eel-worthy amounts of drool coming out of his mouth. He swallowed hard and inhaled the smells instead, making another shiver of delight go over him. “Quina’s a grumpy little jerk, but s/he knows his/her cooking.”

 

“Oh, that’s his/her passion,” said Quistis, blowing on the soup a little bit. Her voice seemed reassuringly strong and in this instance, carefree. “Herbalism is just another aspect of cooking to him/her. So Quina made this?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Hmm.” Quistis inhaled deeply. Seifer eyed her as she wrinkled her nose a little bit, but whatever she smelled wasn’t enough to stop her from taking a cautious lick of soup and then a more enthusiastic sip. “That’s wonderful. I haven’t eaten this kind of soup since I left home.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Yeah.” She started eating. Seifer found himself missing the sound of her voice already, especially when she sounded close to normal. 

 

“Why not?” He prompted. 

 

“Oh, well…” Quistis seemed relieved; maybe she had been suffering from silence as much as frustration and sadness. “Knights don’t really cook, and the Order’s more concerned with making sure everyone has _enough_ food, not necessarily good food." She took another sip, a longer one this time, and smiled with pleasure. “Don’t get me wrong, the cooks do what they can with what they get, but it does get monotonous after a while. Oh! There’s mussels in here.”

 

“Yeah, Quina threw in a bunch.” Seifer started sipping at his own soup. It was not nearly as hot as dragon flame, or so he thought until a burn of some kind of hot pepper started warming up his tongue. It was _good._ Crunching through a mouthful of springy fungus and soft-cooked bones, he said, “I think s/he threw in some clams and turtle meat too.”

 

“Then it really _is_ just like home.” 

 

“When _did_ you leave home, anyway? You had to have a few years of training by the age of fifteen, so definitely earlier than that.”

 

“I was ten when I left,” said Quistis, picking up her cauldron. It was just the right size to be a perfect bowl for a dragon. 

 

“Why?”

 

“Mmm… A couple of reasons.”

 

“Like?”

 

Quistis huffed, or maybe she was cooling off her soup before taking a rather long drink of it. She sipped daintily, pouring the broth to meet the tip of her pursed lips. In contrast, Seifer put his mouth directly into his soup and slurped, but politely like Fujin and Raijin had stressed. 

 

“Well, it was hard on my parents to keep all of us,” she said, her voice a little subdued. “Don’t misunderstand, they loved us all, but thirteen children is a lot to take care of.”

 

Seifer nearly choked. “Thirteen! What’d your mother do, have litters?”

 

“If by that you mean ‘twins and triplets’, yes,” said Quistis, her lips thinning somewhat. “I was the only singleton in the family.”

 

“Sounds lonely.”

 

“It is _impossible_ to be lonely with seven little siblings to take care of,” said Quistis dryly. “And some of my other brothers and sisters lived close enough by that they’d bring _their_ children over too, and I’d take care of them while everyone was working.”

 

“Damn. Never a moment to breathe, huh?”

 

“It could have been worse. Everyone could have died of starvation or cold, but we always had enough.” Quistis sipped her soup, her gaze shadowing. “I hope… I hope everyone’s alright. I send back what I can, but being a knight would let me send back more.”

 

“More what?”

 

“Money. Supplies.” She shrugged and said, “Maybe enough to get someone else out of the village, if they want to leave.”

 

“So you left to help other people leave?”

 

Quistis looked at her soup and didn’t say anything for a while. Seifer passed the time by taking cautious sips of his own soup and putting anything he couldn’t immediately identify into the lid of his cauldron. The frog legs had cooked up savory and tender, with a delightful crunch of bone when he bit through them. There was also a whole lot of wibbly wobbly black stuff that also crunched when he bit into it, yet definitely did not taste of meat. It actually reminded him of jellyfish but he had no idea what in the swamp would have such a texture. He was so perplexed that he nearly missed Quistis starting to talk again.

 

“I knew there was more out there,” Quistis said softly. “Peddlers would come through sometimes. And storytellers. The occasional caravan when the lower paths were washed out or covered from avalanche falls. Older boys and girls would disappear with them all the time. Sometimes they’d come back, but usually we got word from other caravans about them crossing the sea or having adventures… But I didn’t know how to do anything the caravans needed and anyway, my family needed me. I never felt like I could go.”

 

“But obviously you did,” said Seifer, frowning. When Quistis looked at him with a pale imitation of her normal arched brow, he explained, “So what changed?”

 

“Sir Loire arrived.”

 

“Yeah but I thought you said he was a dumb—“

 

Quistis gave Seifer a look that quite clearly stated that while _she_ could say what she wanted, he’d best watch his tongue when talking to her about her knight-master. It made Seifer chuckle when Quistis said primly, “He’s a little foolish in some aspects, but he knows how to vanquish a wicked beast better than most. And the one he took care of for us had killed a few people, so that was even more impressive. Honestly, it was like he had stepped straight out of a tale… So I begged him to take me on and he did.”

 

“Just like that, huh?” Seifer had no idea why anyone might want to become a knight. Objectively he knew he’d had his own reasons as a human in that long-ago, forgotten pre-dragon time, but absolutely nothing was coming to mind now. All he knew of knights was how they treated dragons, which was rude to say the least and lethal at the worst. They were noisy and smelly too, except for Quistis. 

 

“It took a lot of talking,” said Quistis, chuckling. “He’d never had a squire before and wasn’t sure what to do, but when I told him why I wanted to be a knight, he practically dragged me back to the Order.”

 

“Yeah? What’d you say?”

 

“That I wanted to make the world a better place like he did.”

 

“Ah, flattery. The universal currency.”

 

Quistis huffed. “I was being sincere. I didn’t know he was silly at the time.”

 

“How long did it take you to find out?” 

 

“A few years,” she admitted with a little flush. “I know I’ve told you that he’s unorthodox when it comes to vanquishing beasts and such, but he’s also rather flighty. He had a hard time staying focused. To be honest, when he vanquished the beast near my village, he was actually looking for something else… But never got around to telling me what it was. I think he’s forgotten.”

 

She was looking depressed again. Was she wondering if Sir Loire had forgotten her? Seifer couldn’t see how that could be possible. Dragon or human, Quistis was an amazing being that surely left a mark no matter where she went. She’d convinced a wandering knight to take her on with no references when she’d been a _child,_ for goodness sakes. Such a will could not be forgotten by anyone. 

 

“You must really want to be a knight,” said Seifer thoughtfully. “I mean, your knight-master obviously isn't up to snuff, so you must have wanted something beyond him to keep going with him, right? What's so great about your Order?”

 

“The Holy Order of Eden is one of the best of the world,” said Quistis with a longing sigh. “Even at his silliest, Sir Loire could still fight the pants off anyone we met, and he was great against seemingly impossible odds. And the rest of the senior knights are just as strong! And besides… Everyone knows who we are. And that we can be trusted to take care of their problems and protect them. We’re not just strong, we’re _fair_ even when it doesn’t benefit us, and we make the world a better place. _I_ want to make the world a better place…” She sighed again and drooped, saying, “And I can’t do that as a dragon. I just can’t.”

 

Seifer didn’t know what to say to that. He couldn’t imagine living his whole life in service of others; just the concept made his skin crawl, actually. But Quistisclearly thought it was important, so Seifer cast around for anything that might possibly help.

 

“You know… Maybe you could be a ‘good’ dragon or something,” he said, making Quistis look at him strangely. “You go after the beasts that knights can’t kill without a lot of help. You said there was a good sorceress attached to your Order, maybe she can make you a charm so people can understand and stuff.”

 

“Oh. I guess… That’s true…” Quistis looked down at her soup, still and silent. “Seifer, I’m so sorry for trying to kill you when we first met.”

 

“Huh? Oh. Don’t worry about it.”

 

“No, I should have apologized a long time ago. I thought you were a dumb beast, not a _person_ , and—“

 

Seifer shrugged. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m technically a wicked creature. I ate some pirates a decade ago.”

 

“What?” Quistis sat up, surprised. “You’ve… What?”

 

“They were trying to kill Fujin and Raijin. So I ate ‘em,” said Seifer, snorting a bit at the memory. “Dropped down on the deck, bit whoever I could, and set the ship on fire. And honestly, eating them was kinder than letting them drown.”

 

“I… I guess that’s true,” said Quistis, still stunned. “But… Well… They _were_ trying to hurt Fujin and Raijin. So it was justified.”

 

“Definitely. And I was kind of hungry anyway. But they tasted _nasty,_ so I’m never eating human again.”

 

Quistis snorted. Then she cocked her head, frowning. “But if humans tasted delicious, would you eat them then?”

 

“No.”

 

“Why?”

 

Seifer thought about how soft humans were, with their lack of scales and claws and how they were so fragile that they cooked in sunshine and froze in the snow. How they were so small and weak and pitiful. It was like eating blind cubs that never had the protection of a mother. What kind of predator _always_ sought out such easy prey?

 

“It’s beneath me,” he said, which made Quistis blink and then start laughing quietly. 

 

“Are you sure you’re wicked, Seifer?”

 

 _“I could be,”_ he thought idly, but kept the lewd thought to himself. They were having such a good time chatting and he didn’t want to get all stupid and ruin things. 

 

“I said _technically_ I was wicked,” he reminded her. “In any case, as long as you don’t strike at me again, we’ll call it even.”

 

“Fair enough,” said Quistis. She started eating her soup again, seemingly more relaxed. Seifer drank his too, but kept an eye on her to make sure she wasn’t going to slip into another maudlin mood. So far there had been no trace of tears, but they didn’t seem to be a continuous thing. A clump of something hit his mouth and distracted, Seifer looked into his soup to find a large bunch of springy black moss that honestly looked like a ball of hair. He was on the verge of throwing it out except it smelled good, so he took a bite and was pleasantly surprised by the savory crunch of it, though some of that had to do with the frog legs tangled into it. Quina _definitely_ knew how to cook.

 

“Seifer, what about if _you_ became a good dragon? You’d never be hunted. And I’m sure you could find a great cave with the Order’s resources.”

 

Seifer nearly choked on his mouthful of fungus and frog. “Thanks, but I’m fine on my own. The best part about being a dragon is answering to no one.”

 

“I suppose so.” 

 

“Does making it on your own scare you that much?”

 

“Not really. I mean, if all goes well, I’d be a knight errant and largely living on my own anyway. It’s just… I’d prefer to have structure. And backup if I needed it.”

 

“I’d be your backup.”

 

Quistis laughed softly. “I know. But having the experience of other knights to call on would be good too.”

 

“Their experience would come at the price of your obedience,” Seifer pointed out.

 

“Respect is not obedience.”

 

“No, _obedience_ is obedience. Am I wrong? Or did you not hold yourself back for three years on someone else’s say-so?”

 

Quistis looked at him archly. “I thought you said that it was good that Sir Loire made me wait.”

 

“Only if he was trying to look out for you. On the other hand, if he was just lazy and you were stuck with him anyway, that’s different.” Seifer cocked his head, frowning. “Actually, why didn’t you find someone better? I’m assuming you _could_ change knight-masters, right?”

 

“He wasn’t that bad. Just… Unfocused.” Quistis huffed. “Besides, all the other knights already had squires, sometimes more than one, and they weren’t really the kind of knight I wanted to be either. Some of them rode desks instead of chocobos. And most of the others were more concerned with training than traveling around.”

 

“So what kind of knight _do_ you want to be, then? The shiny kind out of tales who’s never wrong and never defeated?”

 

Quistis flushed a bit, turning scarlet and amber in the pertinent places. “It sounds silly when you say it like that. But yes. Someday I want to be who I thought Sir Loire was. I want to be… Inspiring.”

 

Seifer couldn’t argue with that without outright insulting Quistis, and it wasn’t like he disagreed with the sentiment. If anyone could make dumb hicks and yokels believe they could do anything, it would be Quistis: between her smarts, her looks, her confidence, her strength, and her humble origins, Seifer could easily see all kinds of people flocking to and fawning over her. She could quite easily inspire a whole generation of people out of servility with the right motivation. But at the same time…

 

“You know, you’re going to live a lot longer as a dragon. You could literally be inspiring people for centuries if you stayed in this shape.” 

 

“Seifer—“

 

“I’m just saying, ’Quistis gave up her humanity for the sake of justice’ is pretty damn inspiring.”

 

“It’s not attainable by everyone else, either. No, I’d rather give people real goals to shoot for.”

 

“Like what? ‘Run away from home to train with a wandering tin can warrior, risk life and limb to do things for other people without compensation, and all of this so people will say nice things over your dead body’.”

 

Quistis glared at him. Her claws twitched like she wanted to throw her soup bowl at him. “Did everything I just talked about _really_ sound like that to you?”

 

“Well… No,” Seifer admitted with a bit of a squirm. “It sounded much better. But all of what I said is what you _did,_ too, and it’s just as true as what you want.”

 

Her annoyed look did not cool down. “So what you just said how you’ll talk about me after I die, then? One way or another?”

 

Seifer bristled at the notion. “Hell no. I’ll make you a legend. And you’re not going to die if I have anything to say about it—“

 

“Then why not respect me when I’m right here in front of you?”

 

“I am criticizing you, not disrespecting you,” said Seifer, thinking of many a time when Fujin and Raijin had done the same thing to him; it had been infuriating, sure, but had helped hone his thoughts and ability to snap back. Without them poking him into some kind of structure and mental discipline, he might have been a being of pure shortsighted desires, and thus probably dead fifty years back. You don’t sink every pirate ship for shiny things. You don’t eat every four-legged animal in sight. And you sure as hell don’t scream at the ones who saved your life and say they never supported you when they didn’t go along with your suicide ventures. 

 

“You’re trying to make me feel foolish for wanting to be human. That _is_ disrespectful, Seifer.”

 

“Except I’m not _making_ you do anything. If you feel foolish for wanting to be human, that’s about you. And I haven’t said a damn thing about being human, we’re talking about why you want to be a _knight._ You’re the one who’s making them be the same thing.”

 

Quistis opened her mouth to argue but stopped before the words could come out. She hung there for a second, frozen between clear temper and confusion, and Seifer waited until confusion won out with a heavy sigh that seemed to take the strength out of her long neck. She looked down at her soup bowl, rolling it contemplatively between her claws.

 

“I suppose that’s true,” she said reluctantly. “Still, I don’t know how to make the world a better place as anything other than a human, and of all the options I have, being a knight is the best one. And if I can’t make the world a better place, then what am I doing here?”

 

“Why do you think you’re only what you can _do?”_ Seifer asked irritably. When Quistis went still, he said, “Anybody can _do_ something, Quistis. Every skill is taught. But no one can _be_ you. If you take away everything you’ve ever learned, what’s left?”

 

“That’s impossible, Seifer,” she said, shaking her head. “Learning was how I was different from all my siblings. Learning set me apart from the squires of the Order, because I always wanted to know more. If I remove everything I’ve learned—“

 

“Your thirst for learning would still be there. So that’s you.”

 

“…That’s true, I guess,” said Quistis, but her voice was reassuringly brighter. 

 

“And you’re smart enough to trust new information instead of just your gut,” Seifer added. “Otherwise, I don’t think you would have trusted a dragon.”

 

“I suppose…”

 

“And you’ve got a temper,” Seifer finished, which made Quistis huff and then chuckle. “A hot one.”

 

“Which _you_ have a certain talent of provoking.”

 

“I guess that’s me,” he said a little cheekily, and Quistis chuckled again. At first he thought she was going to quip back, but instead she looked at him rather fondly.  
  
“Thank you, Seifer. I think… I feel better. I definitely feel better.”

 

Seifer ruffled his wings. “You’re welcome,” he said neutrally, not sure if he liked what Quistis’s returning spirits meant. He’d rather she showed that enthusiasm for fully becoming a dragon, not returning to a silly shape that couldn’t contain her magnificent essence. He gripped his claws together to keep from scratching the ground with annoyance, but Quistis sensed his irritation and gave him a look that he couldn’t exactly figure out. He glared back.

 

“What?”

 

“I was just wondering what you were like when you were a human.”

 

“Pfft!”

 

“I think you must have been very proud. And that you worked really hard to… To attain your goals.”

 

“Hmph.”

 

“And I think you wanted to do the right thing too,” she said, making Seifer look away. “Otherwise, why did you end up in the Sorceress’s castle? Why were you there in the first place? She said you were trying to vanquish her. I think… Even if someone had ordered you to go, you wouldn’t have unless you had good reason. _Your_ reasons.”

 

“Trying to make me out to be some noble whatever?” Seifer retorted, feeling his wings heat up with embarrassment. “Look, whoever I was before, I don’t remember him now. He’s dead, as far as I’m concerned. I as a dragon ate him. That’s basically what happened, so…”

 

“You’re protesting rather hard.”

 

“Yeah, well, you’re trying to make me something I’m not.”

 

Quistis arched a brow. _‘Not so fun when someone else does it’_ practically radiated out of her face, but instead all she said was, “I’m just trying to learn more about you, Seifer.”

 

“Then ask me stuff about being a dragon.”

 

“Alright. What do you like best, aside from your independence?”

 

“Flight. Power. How nobody messes with me and lives to regret it.”

 

That last was a slight exaggeration, but Quistis didn’t have to know that. She seemed to sense he was blowing things up a little because she made a polite noise of interest and her eyes were just ever so innocent. The compulsion to talk bubbled up through Seifer’s mouth and made him say, “I mean, look at Fujin and Raijin. They’ve got it all figured out. They’re the undisputed masters of their territory. Every creature pays them their due—hell, even humans set up shrines to worship them for safe waters and stuff like that. And they do whatever they want all day. Who wouldn’t want that?”

 

“It’s attractive,” Quistis agreed. “But why do _you_ want it?”

 

“Because I… I just do.” Seifer folded his wings tightly around himself, gripping his soup bowl. “I don’t want to be their third wheel or their fake dragonet or whatever. I want to be me. I need my own place and my own territory with enough food and treasure, and…”

 

“And that’ll be enough?”

 

“Yeah,” said Seifer, but saying it aloud felt… Hollow. He resisted the urge to remind Quistis that she was still his hoard and that his life could only be complete if she was part of it. Whatever cave he found, whatever territory he claimed, none of it would mean anything if he had no hoard to call his own. Without a hoard, Seifer was basically just a flying lizard. But he couldn’t imagine that Quistis would stay within just one territory if wrongs needed righting or if someone in the Order needed her, and following her around meant Seifer couldn’t have a cave of his own and expect it to be there when he came back. Maybe he _should_ take up with the Order of Eden… Oh yeah, and be surrounded by knights who would keep looking at him like a prize at best and a dangerous target at worst. And no one would be able to understand him except for Quistis, _if_ she was around! 

 

“I hope you get what you want,” said Quistis, making Seifer grumble. “What’s best for you.”

 

“You too,” he muttered. 

 

“And thank you for the soup. It was delicious.”

 

“I’ll tell Quina when I take the cauldrons back.” 

 

“I can do that, Seifer. You brought the soup here.”

 

“Oh. Alright.” He handed her the empty cauldron and watched as she balanced adroitly on just her back legs—but of course she would. Seifer noticed she still manipulated her front paws like she still had hands, too, which in this case was very useful. He suppressed a sigh and went to his ‘cave’ as Quistis walked away, a bit more verve in her step. Well, she definitely didn’t seem sad anymore but now _he_ was feeling all kinds of weird and depressed. It wasn’t the first time Seifer had ever pondered what it meant to be a dragon, but it was definitely the first time in a really long time that he didn’t have a solid answer. Stupid living hoard. Why couldn’t he have desired jewels or at least something inanimate? Quistis’s brilliance came from her independence, but that same spirit would take her away from him someday. And then what would he be? Incomplete forever? A half-dragon forever? A part of him railed at the notion but the rest of him was silent with the truth of it. 

 

_“What if I never become the kind of dragon I want to be because it’s just… Impossible?”_

 

He had a sudden mental image of a wyvern. Stupid creatures that were essentially massive scaled birds, they were just smart enough to be vain and sometimes collected hoards of their own to look cool. Seifer had passed through a wyvern’s territory once and found the daft thing draping itself in cloth-of-gold, sitting in a pile of dirty joss paper with gold and silver paint and counting coins that were actually pieces of punched tin. It was pathetic in how hard it pretended to be a dragon…

 

Seifer shuddered and shut his eyes. It didn’t bear thinking about. It wasn’t relevant. And it was not going to be true for him. Anyway, Quistis wasn’t human yet. Nothing had be decided yet. For one more night he could pretend that Quistis would change her mind and stay as she was. 

 

And literally, one night was all he had. Because the next morning Seifer woke up to a shriek of pure joy from next door, and when he immediately looked into Quistis’s cave, there was a human inside it instead of a dragoness, one with blonde hair and bright blue eyes and adamantine mail the color of the most wonderful dragoness Seifer had ever known. She was jumping and throwing her hands in the air, laughing like Seifer had never heard before, so relieved and joyful that he almost couldn’t be sad for her loss. Yet Seifer couldn’t manage a whisper of congratulations either, so instead he quietly withdrew to his side. His chest hurt like a lance had gone through him. His throat was closing up. His eyes were burning for some reason and when Seifer rubbed them, thinking dust or grass had gotten into them, he was perplexed when he touched something wet instead. What the hell was wrong with his face? A second later he realized what it was, but he had no time to dwell on it. The light coming into the front of his cave suddenly disappeared as Fujin and Raijin landed in front of it and immediately began exclaiming with happiness over Quistis’s return. Seifer gritted his teeth, scrubbed the water from his eyes before anyone could tell what had happened, and took a moment to compose himself. Dragons did not cry. And he was going to be as much of a dragon as he possibly could be. He put on what he hoped was a surprised and happy face and went next door. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quistis and Seifer as dragons eating frog legs. A fandom first, as requested by sissyHIYAH XD


	9. Divided Hearts

Quistis woke up feeling calm and refreshed. For a while she did not open her eyes even though sunlight was dappling her face, because to open her eyes would cause the moment to end, and even though she hadn’t been doing very much lately, Quistis could not exactly say she’d been relaxing, either. Rolling onto her back, Quistis stretched and took a deep breath, reveling in the simple feeling of blood running through her veins. The ground was hard but still felt good underneath her, and as Quistis absently crossed her legs and opened her eyes to the day, she noticed that the ceiling of her cave was somewhat higher than it had been the night before. Actually, it was a lot higher. And now that she noticed that oddness, Quistis also realized she was a little cold. What was going on?

 

She stood up to get a better look around and it wasn’t until she was upright that Quistis finally realized what was wrong. No, not wrong—different. Different, but right. It came to her as she straightened up that she should not have been able to get up onto her hind feet from her back, and that even lying on her back should have been incredibly uncomfortable if not outright impossible with wings and spine scales. Quistis immediately held up her hands in front of her face and gasped when she saw _human_ hands, not dark brown legs with golden claws. She touched her face and felt soft, warm flesh instead of hard scales. Her face was flat, not pointed. She had ears instead of a crown of horns. And _hair._ The instant Quistis touched her long, silky human hair again, tears sprang to her eyes. But instead of sobbing, Quistis found herself wanting to shout with joy…

 

And really, why shouldn’t she? It had been over two months since she’d changed and now she was _back._

 

So Quistis whooped as loudly as she could, her insides afire with wild emotion. The shouting did not make the joy any less; in fact, it felt wonderful to keep yelling and Quistis threw decorum to the wind to start jumping around too, flinging her hands up and kicking like she was a little girl again. She hadn’t celebrated without reserve in years. Even the ground suddenly shaking didn’t bother Quistis in the least, nor did the sudden lack of light in her cave. When Quistis spun around, Fujin and Raijin were peering inside, their bushy brows raised in surprise and in Raijin’s case, mouth slightly open in shock.

 

“Oh-ho!” He boomed, his voice banging like a solid thing in the cave. “You’re human again!”

 

“Yes! Yes! Yes!”

 

“GOOD,” said Fujin more serenely, but she looked very pleased. 

 

“Yes!” Quistis laughed and settled long enough to catch her breath. “Oh, I have to tell Master Quale! And Quina! And—“

 

“Congratulations,” said a calm, rather formal dragon voice, and Fujin and Raijin leaned aside to make room for Seifer. The joy inside Quistis’s chest did not exactly stop, but it did still somewhat. Seifer was holding his wings in very tight to his sides. His claws were just a bit too splayed to look anything but forcedly relaxed. It was the posture of his neck and head that confirmed his disappointment, because Seifer was as upright as she’d ever seen him, like he was trying to distance himself from her… And the thought of that hurt unexpectedly. Quistis unconsciously folded her arms as she met Seifer’s cool gaze.

 

“Thank you,” she said, matching his tone. A part of her was dismayed, but why should it be? She’d always known Seifer would not be happy about her becoming a human again. And he’d never been one for hiding his emotions either. Really, he was showing a lot of restraint.

 

A soft clicking of bone charms let Quistis know Quale was about, and Fujin edged over to allow Quale and Quina to come through to the cave. Upon seeing Quistis, Quina immediately threw his/her hands up with a whoop that made his/her red cloth mask snap out like a flag.

 

“Best! Herbalist! EVERRR!” Quina crowed for exactly three seconds before Quale bopped him/her none-too-gently on the head with xis ceremonial fork.

 

“Quistis would not have returned to human shape without her own efforts,” said Quale, as much to Quina as everyone else. Quistis nevertheless beamed as xe added, “The decoctions were to counteract the sorcerous reinforcement, not turn Quistis into a human against her sleeping will.”

 

“Still best herbalist ever,” Quina muttered, hands over his/her head. “Added snake eye root and half-green nuts to cool _dragon_ fire, not all fire. Get results with no moping.”

 

“Contemplation is not moping.”

 

“True, but she mope.”

 

Quale looked like xe was considering bopping Quina in the head again, but decided against it in favor of looking at Quistis with a big smile. She couldn’t see xis mouth because of the mask, but xis eyes crinkled massively at the corners and nearly glowed with pride.

 

“I knew you could do it once you were calm,” xe said. “Truly calm and comfortable in yourself, not merely your skin.”

 

“I understand,” said Quistis, and she did. Mostly. Quale’s advice for her meditation practice over the past two months had mostly been asking her broad questions about what she thought was important about life, but truthfully it was Seifer’s more pointed, personal questioning that had made the pieces fall into place. Nothing that’d ever done was half as important as who she was, even if she didn’t know everything about herself to the last detail. Obsessing over that feeling of incompletion had been lately causing her more stress than the dragon shape. 

 

Meanwhile Seifer harrumphed and looked annoyed. Quina glanced up at him.

 

“Lonely?” S/he asked with only a little bit of mockery. Seifer glared at him/her. “Maybe I drug you human too.”

 

Seifer bared his teeth, dropped his head to biting level, and growled. Quina leaned back a little but did not back up in the face of the obvious hostility, and Fujin and Raijin gave Seifer reproving looks and when Seifer did not straighten up, Fujin poked him in the cheek with her whisker. He leaned back and looked away, discontent radiating off of him. Quistis pushed her own annoyance with his behavior off to the side. She had always known he would be grumpy about this. 

 

“Master Quale, I don’t know how to thank you enough for your help and continued generosity,” she said instead to Quale, bowing from the waist. “If there’s anything I can do to repay you, I’d be—“

 

“Take Quina.”

 

“What?”

 

“What?” Seifer echoed angrily, eyes flaring wide. 

 

“Take Quina,” Quale repeated as Quistis straightened, eyes wide. She looked at the younger Qu, who was looking seriously back at her, and realized that this was something s/he and Quale had probably been talking about for a while. Seifer glared furiously at Quina’s back, looking like he really did want to bite him/her, and Fujin and Raijin exchanged a concerned look behind his head. Quistis noticed their whiskers snaking out toward his horns, like they were getting ready just in case of… Something. 

 

_“I know Seifer doesn’t always get along with Quina, but I thought they were mostly friends. Why is he so mad about the idea of him/her coming with us?_

 

 _“…Oh._ Us. _I’ve been spending most days with Quina for the training, but not nearly as many with Seifer. And now I’m not a dragon anymore and Quina’s coming with us still… So…”_

 

“Quina has reached the limits of what I am able to teach in the village,” said Quale to Quistis, making her refocus. “And s/he must learn more if s/he is the succeed me. You have said that your Order travels far and wide, which means Quina will learn things that no Qu ever has.”

 

“Err… I’ll make the best introduction I can,” said Quistis cautiously, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized Quina would be welcomed with open arms. Quina’s potion-making skills would be in high demand. Barring that, knights were always hungry and Quina loved to cook. 

 

“Good enough,” said Quina, nodding. “When you go, I go too.”

 

“Of course, Quina.” Something else occurred to Quistis and she looked at Seifer, noting with dismay that he seemed to be angry now rather than just upset. “Seifer, uh… You’ll have to carry both of us if we fly. That won’t be too much weight, will it?”

 

Seifer’s eyes darkened. Without a word he backed up and started walking away, making Raijin grunt as he accidentally slapped the Far Eastern dragon with his tail. Quistis set her jaw, tempted to let him go off in a sulk since she deserved to be happy about being human again, damn it… On the other hand, she didn’t want him to go either. If he just stayed around a bit, he’d surely see this change was for the best. Bobbing her head and making excuses to Quale (who gave her an arched brow and a strangely knowing look), Quistis left the cave and ran after Seifer. He was picking his way toward his usual egress from the swamp and absently fanning his wings, the way he always did to warm them up before he began to fly.

 

“Seifer, wait!”

 

“Why?” His voice was so bitter that it hurt to hear.

 

Quistis ran harder and jumped from root to root like she’d seen several of the Qu do. She nearly slipped more than once; her body felt simultaneously small and incomplete, though she told herself it was just a passing sensation. After all, she’d kept falling over when she’d first become a dragon. To his credit, Seifer waited until she not only came around, but was also able to scale a bit of tangled grape ivy to be at the level of his face. As she’d feared, his formality had hardened into tightly leashed upset. This was more than just being mad about being asked to carry Quina or her becoming human. 

 

“Seifer…” She stalled out. She had no idea what she wanted to say, anyway, just that she didn’t want him to go. But what if he took that the wrong way? It wasn’t like she _liked_ him, not like that… They were different species again, and really, she was just used to him being around and—

 

“If you’re going to tell me not to be mad, save your breath,” he said in a low rumble, his claws digging restlessly into the tree roots underneath. “Because I’m not mad. I’m disappointed.”

 

The insult stung her just enough to startle words out of her. Unfortunately, they were not good ones. “Did you really think I was going to stay a dragon for you?” When his gaze dropped, temper flared in earnest in her chest. “Or did you just _hope_ I’d never go back? And then what were you planning to do, scoop me up while I was brokenhearted and… And…”

 

“I was going to help you get used to your new life,” he said, tail lashing again. “To help you fall in love with it.”

 

“With you?” Quistis shot. The instant it was out of her mouth, Quistis instantly regretted what she’d said. It was cheap. It was cruel. Seifer leaned back, as fully upright as he could get without actually sitting back on his haunches, and looked at her coldly down the length of his muzzle. 

 

“Of course not,” he said, his voice silky with sarcasm and scorn. “That would be _disgusting._ You’re _human._ I’m just a dragon.”

 

“That’s not what I meant.”

 

“But you said it.”

 

She stamped on the grape ivy, making her perch shake and rattle. “But that’s not _why!_ Don’t pretend like you haven’t been flirting with me this whole time! You’ve been trying to seduce me into staying in dragon shape one way or another and that’s _not_ something friends do! You’re supposed—”

 

“We’re not friends, Quistis,” said Seifer, and the words broke in her throat. She stared at him, her chest full of cracking glass, as he said quietly and viciously, “You’re my _hoard._ Which means that for whatever stupid reason, I want to see you at your best. I still want that even though you want to drag yourself along the earth and shackle yourself to stupid rules and human honor—“

 

It was like marsh gas exploded under her scalp, setting her ablaze with temper. “It’s what I’ve wanted my whole life! It’s what I’ve worked for since I was—and _you_ wanted it too! When you were a knight! When you were a human!”

 

“But I’m not human now, so—“

 

“But you _are!_ It’s who you’re supposed to be! You’re _human,_ not a real—“

 

His blue-green eyes, piercing as always, widened and glowed, and for a second Quistis thought Seifer was going to flame or bite her. Instead he snapped his wings hard, making her scrabble for a handhold as he whipped a miniature tornado through the swamp. Dead leaves, twigs, and small stones lashed Quistis as she clung to the grape ivy vines, pinging painlessly off her mail shirt and snapping like switches against her relatively exposed arms and legs. The deep groan of air rushing through the trees nearly covered the crack and thundering of Seifer taking off in the swamp proper instead of going to a clearing, and Quistis ducked her head against crashing branches and falling nuts and fruit. As soon as the noise settled, Quistis lifted her head and looked up at the blinding gap among the tall marsh trees that was just big enough for an angry dragon to pass through. Fear, fury, and anguish locked her in place, staring up at a path she could no longer follow until she heard a clicking of bone charms that for the past two months, had always put her in a calm and meditative state. The sound of the bone charms seemed to gently but firmly push the wild emotions in her chest somewhere outside her, where they could rage without interference. 

 

“When he comes back, he will be calmer,” said Quale, who was standing some distance away. Quina, Fujin, and Raijin were there too, though the Far Eastern dragons were frowning at Quistis something fierce. Of course they would be upset for their friend. Of course they’d heard what terrible thing she’d nearly said to him. 

 

_“Him being a dragon is just as important as being a knight is to me. Why did I say that?”_

 

“Meanwhile, I am sure you would like a bath and something to eat,” said Quale, looking meaningfully at Quina. For once, Quina just bowed his/her head, offering no sass or suggestion. When they turned to go to the village, Quistis followed. Fujin and Raijin went their own way, no doubt in search of Seifer. 

 

The trancelike calm faded the closer to the village she went and finally broke in the bath. She hadn’t had one in over two months and as Quistis mechanically soaped and scrubbed herself clean, she couldn’t help but notice the oddness of her human body still. Or perhaps she was just more aware of having long, scale-less legs, toenails and fingernails instead of claws, and instead of horns, her hair. Oh, her hair! Quistis loved her hair, normally anyway. It was her one vanity in a world of armor and combat, that she kept it long and silky even if she twisted it up most of the time. Shallow though it sounded, her hair was definitely one of her most favorite things about being human and yet as she lathered it and rinsed it clean, she couldn’t take any pleasure in its weight or smoothness or its color, which went from bright gold to bronze when it was wet. She couldn’t enjoy her hair. She couldn’t enjoy being human…

 

Quistis nearly cried. Instead, she rinsed herself off, sank into the massive hot spring that was the communal bath of Qu Village, put her head underwater and screamed. Quina, who was also bathing nearby, said nothing until she came back up and scrubbed the water angrily from her face. 

 

“You said nothing wrong,” said Quina evenly. 

 

“I said he wasn’t a real dragon,” Quistis shot back, guilt forcing the words out.

 

“Oh. Well, _that_ wrong. But everything else, true.” Quina put his/her arms on the edge on the edge of the bath, his/her blue eyes contemplative. “He hope you stay dragon. Everyone knows. He lonely.”

 

“He has Fujin and Raijin.”

 

“Fujin and Raijin not his type.” Quina was silent for a moment and then said, “No others of his type.”

 

“What do you mean? He’s a Western dragon, isn’t he?”

 

“No.” Quina looked at Quistis hard for a second. “You ever see dragon like him?”

 

“No,” she admitted after a moment. “He’s much shinier. His colors are incredibly vivid. And his eyes…”

 

“Seifer not normal dragon,” said Quina, like Quistis hadn’t nearly gotten lost thinking about Seifer’s eyes. “Neck, too long. Wings, too big. Tail, too long _and_ too sharp. Claws too short. Horns, wrong. To Western dragon, Seifer look stretched-out, scary-looking. Fujin and Raijin don’t care. They are _shenlong,_ snakey and skinny by nature. They think he look good. But…”

 

“No Western dragons do,” Quistis whispered, her chest feeling even more hollow as she thought about all the times Seifer’s mere appearance had set her heart to racing. “No Western dragons except…”

 

“Not your problem,” said Quina, like s/he hadn’t just yanked the floor out from under Quistis’s understanding of the situation. “He lonely, is _his_ problem. He guilt you, _his_ problem. You human now. You _only_ Qu in all history who became dragon. That’s real good.”

 

“I just wish he was happier,” said Quistis miserably. “I knew he’d be upset when I turned back into a human, but…”

 

“Well, he no happy unless you dragoness. Again, his problem.”

 

Would it have been better if she had stayed in dragon form? After all, goals could change… Lives didn’t have to follow the same track one set for them in childhood… And… It wasn’t like the Order would die out without her…

 

_“No. If I was going to sign my life over to a man, I would have stayed in the village and married whoever my parents suggested. This is the right choice for me. Quina’s right, it’s all Seifer’s problem. I am not responsible for his happiness. He just… He just needs time to adjust. That’s all.”_

 

“What you want eat?” Quina asked, making Quistis glance at her. “First thing eat as human, what want?”

 

“Uh…” Quistis’s mind scattered from the sudden change in topic, but surprisingly enough came back with an answer. “Fruit. Fruit and cream.”

 

“Ho ho ho,” said Quina, eyes lighting up. “Fruit, I got. Cream, can get. But something even _better,_ I make _._ I no tell. Surprise. You sleep in my house, okay? Okay.”

 

“Okay,” said Quistis, realizing she’d be able to sleep in a real bed for the first time in months. And that thought lifted her spirits somewhat. The ground had been alright as a dragon, but a real bed with pillows… Oh, and a _blanket!_ She started to get excited at the idea. It was a silly thing to seize on, but thinking about how nice the bed would be helped her _not_ think about Seifer sleeping alone on his side of their split tree cave, _not_ remember how Seifer would look in on her every now and then when he thought she was asleep, and _not_ think about how he’d poke his head over and ask if she wanted to fly or play or do anything but think…

 

So _not_ thinking was not successful. But the dessert of drunken fruit and half-frozen sweet cream that Quina whipped up in his/her kitchen helped a lot, and Quistis even managed to relax enough to fall asleep and wake up feeling ready, if not exactly energetic. Some of her excitement came back as she put on clean clothing instead of her camouflaged tunic and trews; it seemed to signal the start of a new adventure. In the light of day and after a good rest and a hot bath, the agonies of yesterday were blunted enough to look at with a clear eye, and after mulling over her actions, Quistis knew the first thing she needed to do before anything else was find Seifer and apologize. And then after that, hammer things out. She had never been clear what he’d meant by ‘hoard’ and she was not sure how they were going to stay together when she went back to the Order if she didn’t have more information. 

 

Quina was in the middle of packing for their journey when Quistis left and just waved her out, going back to perusing which oversized eating implement to take and what herbs to pack. Habit made Quistis put on the adamantine mail and settle her whip on her belt, which fortunately no one took amiss; in fact, they were both objects of curiosity for anyone she passed by as she hunted for a way to get down onto the ground. A brisk walk around the upper paths revealed a carved staircase winding around a tree that led to the ground, which Quistis took gratefully: she was much better with heights now, but did not want to go down on a rickety ladder or worse, trust herself to a lift made of twisted vines and woven leaves. Once on the ground, she went to the tree-caves and hoped Seifer would be there. Maybe he’d come back during the night or the very early morning. But the caves were empty and when she went inside and looked around, there was no residual body heat either. Wherever Seifer had slept last night, it had not been here. 

 

_“What if he doesn’t come back?”_

 

Well… Fine. That would be fine. Just fine. It would make things much less complicated when she went back to the Order. This was… This was alright. It was fine. What was she supposed to do with a sulky dragon, anyway? The Order surely wouldn’t feed him and shelter him as nicely as the Qu had, much less treat him with respect. It was… Fine. Quistis knuckled her eyes before the tears in them could even think of forming and swallowed hard to scatter the growing lump in her throat too. He was just a dragon. He wasn’t her friend. He was…

 

_“Just someone I care about. Someone I really like talking to. Someone I like being around. Someone I’m really going to miss…”_

 

A sudden shadow and a thump behind her made Quistis spin around, her numbing chest swelling back to life as Seifer’s name pressed against her lips. But it was not Seifer landing in the mouth of the cave, it was Raijin, and he looked annoyed. Sticking his head inside the cave, he snorted and said, “Really? Damn it, Seifer.”

 

“Damn it?” Quistis asked, startled. “Raijin, you don’t know where Seifer is either?”

 

“I knew where he was when I left him,” said Raijin, coming into the cave and eeling around the perimeter. He was so much bigger now and Quistis felt a little intimidated just from his size. He could step on her by accident and not realize it until it was too late, but at the moment his voice was calm and his actions were considerate. Clearly he had forgiven her for saying harsh words the day before even if Seifer hadn’t.

 

“Where was he yesterday?”

 

“He flew off to some mountains and rampaged for a while,” said Raijin dismissively. “Melted some rocks above the timber line. Fujin and I let him tire himself out and we talked a bit, but then he flew off in another grump and I figured he needed some alone time. Fujin went after him, but she didn’t come back yesterday either. I thought they’d both be here.”

 

Seifer had _rampaged_ because of what she’d said? Quistis remembered the nearly mindless rage that had first overtaken her when she’d turned into a dragon. She’d been able to spark that same fury, that same anguish in Seifer? Just by saying he wasn’t a real dragon?

 

 _“No. That wasn’t entirely it. He thinks I wouldn’t…_ Feel _for him because of what he is. But I do care about him very much. Just like I know he cares for me. Ugh, why I didn’t I just_ say _that yesterday instead of accusing him of underhanded tactics?”_

 

“He must be madder than I thought,” mused Raijin, looking around the cave again. “He usually burns hot and fast and I thought he was alright yesterday, but then he just took off like he couldn’t bear to be around us. Which is weird, ya know? We weren’t even saying anything then.”

 

 _“Maybe he felt sad looking at the two of you,”_ Quistis thought, looking at the space Fujin usually occupied at Raijin’s side. _“Maybe he was jealous that he didn’t have a match. Does he know that no other dragon in the world looks like him except for the one I used to be?”_

 

“Oh well. I’ll see if Fujin’s hunting in the delta or something,” said Raijin, walking out of the cave. “She likes the coconut crabs down there.”

 

Quistis nodded absently, still occupied with her current problems, when the temperature suddenly dropped several degrees. Raijin looked up as the wind began to churn and lift debris off the ground. 

 

“Oh, Fujin’s back,” he said like a hurricane seed wasn’t forming above their heads. “She’s coming back _fast._ That’s weird.”

 

Quistis could not express an opinion on the matter. She had to throw her arms up to shield her face and nearly panicked when she felt pressure sucking her into the air. Raijin was too big to go anywhere, so she threw herself at him and wedged herself under his arm as the lifting pressure increased. He obligingly lifted his limb and to her immense relief, curled one of his whiskers around her waist. It was not smooth like a rat’s tail as she had thought until now, but segmented like a lobster’s and much more flexible.

 

In a blur of silver and blue, Fujin suddenly appeared on the ground before the caves, the impact of her entire body hitting the mat of tree roots and packed earth hard enough to send clods of dirt into the air. It was so unlike her usual light landing that apprehension chilled Quistis’s blood. 

 

“Where’s Seifer?” Raijin asked, then looked at his mate more closely. “What happened to _you?_ Why’d you go all wind?”

 

“PROBLEM.”

 

“What sort of problem?”

 

“SORCERESS,” said Fujin curtly. Quistis nearly fell to her knees, stunned at the notion. _Sorceress._ Why? Why now? What could she possibly want with him? Nothing good. Surely nothing good considering what she had already done to him… 

 

Fujin kept talking, her words muffled to Quistis’s ears as she said, “Yesterday, when he flew away and I followed, he just kept going. And going. He wouldn’t stop. He could not stop himself. I could not stop him either. So I stayed with him until we came to a flying castle, but then things began to attack. There were too many to fight alone. They took Seifer. And then there was the army.”

 

“The WHAT?!” Raijin exploded, making Quistis snap back to reality. “What army?”

 

“Some army. All over the land. Many knights.” Fujin bated anxiously, her whiskers twisting with nerves. “They were moving towards the castle. I do not think they saw me or Seifer, but they will be in place to assault it very soon. If he is made to attack them or tries to flee, they will kill him. There are that many. We have to go. We must do something.”

 

“Yeah, of course!” Raijin boomed, swelling with readiness. Quistis yelped, literally shocked out of her contemplation as miniature lightning started crackling over his bronze hide. 

 

“I have to go with you!” Quistis cried, making Fujin and Raijin look at her. “I’ve been inside that castle before. I know how to get inside without being detected. Besides, I’m Seifer’s hoard! There has to be something I can do!”

 

 _“I can’t let that witch put her hands on him again,”_ thought Quistis fiercely. _“Not like this when things are still so bad between us.”_

 

“Hoard-longing is the strongest force known to dragonkind,” mused Raijin, making Fujin grumble in acknowledgement. “You said he couldn’t stop himself, but maybe Quistis being there would pop him out of it a little bit.”

 

“MAYBE. CAN’T HURT.” Fujin looked at Quistis with narrowed eyes. Quistis got the sense Fujin hadn’t quite forgiven her for insulting Seifer yesterday, but it was far secondary in importance to what was going on now. 

 

A rapid tattoo of footsteps made Quistis turn toward the village and see Quale and Quina trotting toward her. If she’d had any mental energy left to be surprised, she would have been at the sight of Quina’s travel-hardy salmon-skin coat, the larger and more intimidating fork, and the bandolier of potions crossing over his/her chest with a bag across his/her back. Instead, Quistis was just glad Quina was ready to go.

 

“Oh, it is you, honored Fujin,” said Quale, surprised. Quistis got the fleeting impression he had been about to scold her before recognizing her. “I had thought Seifer had returned. His temper yesterday…”

 

“He’s been kidnapped by the Sorceress that changed him!” Quistis burst out, making Quale and Quina both exclaim in surprise.

 

“Yeah, so thanks for everything, we really appreciate it, but we have to go now,” said Raijin, picking up Quistis with his whisker and putting her on the back of his head. Instead of spines, he had rich mane of thick black fur that ran down his spine and Quistis knotted her hands in it, aware that they would definitely not be going slow. 

 

“Then Quina must definitely go with you,” said Quale, gesturing at Quina. Quina took a pouch of something out of his/her bandolier and without preamble hurled it into Fujin’s mouth. Quistis stiffened, irrationally expecting something like dragonsbane, but the pouch burst with liquid instead of powder and Fujin abruptly perked up, renewed energy in every line. As Fujin and Raijin looked at Quina with new consideration, Quale said, “Quina’s potions are quite strong and will do well against a Sorceress. Ah, Quistis. Before you go, I must tell you something very important.”

 

“Yes, Master Quale?” Quistis forced her impatience off to the side as much as possible to listen. 

 

“Be careful. You have just recently turned back into a human. There is a chance that you may revert to a dragon at any time.”

 

 _That_ penetrated her building panic like a red-hot spear through the snow. “W…What? You mean…?”

 

“This is not ideal,” said Quale to Quistis as Quina scampered onto Fujin’s back. “You should rest and relax in order to solidify your human shape. But it is clear that you are concerned for Seifer, so the best advice I can give is that you control your emotions. If you let them run wild, you may become a dragon again. And returning to human shape after transforming in such a state may not be so easy. It may take longer than two months. Or maybe even not at all.”

 

Fujin looked at Quistis immediately, eyes narrowed in an unreadable expression. Raijin twisted around to look at her too, but unsuccessfully since she was right at the back of his head. Quale looked very serious. Quina busily braided some of Fujin’s mane into better handholds, unsurprisingly oblivious. Quistis swallowed hard twice, her mouth having been completely dry the first time. 

 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said shakily. The last thing she wanted was to become a dragon again after everything that had happened…

 

No. If she was totally honest with herself, the last thing she wanted was to lose Seifer. Quistis knew she could live as a dragon again. But losing Seifer to death or worse, the Sorceress, was absolutely unacceptable. If she left him to that horrible witch’s will just because she was selfish and afraid, she could never face herself again, much less wear a shield with honor. There was only one thing to do with possibly two outcomes: save Seifer as a human or save him as a dragon. Anything else was absolutely out of the question.

 

“Let’s go,” said Quistis, her voice firming with her resolve, and Quale nodded, stepping back as Fujin and Raijin started to rise into the air. 

 

“Be safe,” xe called to Quistis and Quina both. “Come back to us when you are ready.”

 

“Bye-bye!” Quina shouted, waving his/her work. “I come back smarter than you, Master!”

 

“Hmph! Cheeky!”

 

Quistis could only nod. She needed to focus entirely on the task at hand. She was under no illusions that she was any better equipped to take on the Sorceress now, but at least this time she had more allies. Things would be different. 

 

 _“Hold on, Seifer,”_ she whispered toward the pain in her chest, like she could speak to him and have him hear. _“We’re coming. We’ll be there very soon.”_


	10. Secrets, stories, and surprises

Being carried by Raijin was a completely different experience than being held by Seifer. Raijin did not cup Quistis in his claws, but instead told her to hold onto his mane because they were going to go as fast as possible. And instead of Seifer leaping vertically into the sky and ‘jumping’ for more air before reaching his desired height, Raijin went straight up a long slope like he was water running uphill, though when Quistis glanced behind she could see the rest of his long bronze body rippling like a ribbon and slithering away from the land far below. His flight was much steadier too, especially from where she was right behind his head. His horns were too far away to hold, but the thick black mane that sprouted from his head and down his spine was just long and coarse enough to tangle her hands into easily, and more than that it also baffled the wind enough so that Quistis was even warm. With so much physical discomfort removed, it should have been easy to enjoy flight. But Quistis could not. Her dragon had been kidnapped and was more than a day’s flight away. She didn’t have time to relax.

 

They flew steadily for a long time, silent in their shared urgency. Once Quistis leaned out of the shelter of Raijin’s mane to see where they were and was stunned that the ground was moving by so fast underneath them that she could not make out clear landmarks. She knew she hadn’t been able to move this quickly as a dragon and certainly not for so long either. Quistis was also surprised to realize that being up so high and not on wings of her own didn’t bother her either; apparently being a dragon had permanently broken her fear of heights. 

 

“Raijin! Aren’t you tired?”

 

“Nah,” he boomed back. Not too far away, Fujin was moving at the same apparently effortless pace, Quina invisible in her mane. “Not yet, anyway. Once we get to the territory, though, we’re gonna go even faster.”

 

“Faster! How?”

 

“TERRITORY,” said Fujin as the sea came into sight. It seemed to surge at them like a wave that could eat the whole world and Quistis became aware of lightning starting to crackle over Raijin’s mane. She nearly jerked her hand back but the miniature bolts were not painful; in fact, they passed right through her with a pleasant little buzz that made her feel more alert, and as Quistis looked at them, they increased in frequency and size with every passing moment. Raijin’s horns began to glow too, their velvet surfaces glowing like the burning edge of paper before taking on a brilliance Quistis had to squint against. Meanwhile Fujin was turning translucent, her form a suggestion in currents of barely visible air; on her back, behind her head, the same thing was happening to Quina, who was also hunkering down in her mane and looking astonished. Quistis looked back at her hand and saw that she and Raijin were turning into the same sort of brilliant light-shaped thing and—

 

Abruptly they were over the ocean, just the ocean, with land being a sliver of a suggestion away. Before Quistis had time to be surprised the ocean flickered again, and above their heads the sun jumped from being nearly ahead to mostly on their left. Another flicker and land was suddenly in front of them again, strange with a moving silver mass and what looked like the oldest trees of a very old forest growing out of nowhere. The lightning glow from Raijin’s body began to fade as he tilted down and started approaching the ominously familiar castle that was in the center of this strange environment. 

 

“What just happened?” Quistis called to Raijin, but a second later heard her answer as the distant rumble of thunder reached her ears. Somehow Raijin had been able to turn himself and her into _lightning bolts._ The power needed to make that happen quite stole her breath away with mystery and implications, but Raijin just laughed.

 

“I came home, that’s what happened! Damn, it feels good!”

 

That was not in any way a real answer, but Quistis chose not to question it. For now. “Where’s Fujin?”

 

“She’s coming. She flies faster when we’re solid, but lightning goes faster than wind, ya know?” Raijin cocked his ear as thunder sounded again, this time closer and strangely distorted. “There she is.”

 

Quistis nearly asked him how he knew but realized it was not important. The closer they came to the strange environment, the more Quistis could see of the army and all at once she realized this was not just any army. She had aspired to fly under that exact black and white standard against its blue and golden field for much of her life, though the sheer numbers of knights flying under the colors of the Holy Order of Eden took her breath away. Belatedly Quistis realized that Fujin had indeed described the army as having lots of knights, but she hadn’t said the entire force was made up of them. Nor had she said they were going to be attacking the castle by the time they arrived. 

 

“Damn,” said Raijin, circling wide around the battlefield. The Order looked like a silver web with the Sorceress’s castle like a fat spider in the middle, except this web did not touch the ‘spider’ at all; there was a blackened ring around the castle that was littered with battlefield debris and bodies, some human and some not. Clots of combat dotted the battlefield, Behemoth-sized figures grappling with glowing entities that hurled elemental strength, and teams of knights fought against packs of misshapen, grayish creatures that glittered in ways that Quistis felt but could not describe as disturbing. A moment later she saw one of the creatures fall under a concentrated assault and her gorge rose when she saw the corpse twist and tighten into something that looked barely human. The Sorceress’s penchant for turning knights into other creatures thundered with painful immediacy in her brain and Quistis sent up a wordless prayer that she’d at least been turned into something magnificent. 

 

But what about Seifer? As Raijin wheeled above the battlefield, Quistis could not see anything like Seifer’s mercury-white or ruby-red anywhere in the blasted area, which was a mixed blessing since that probably meant he wasn’t in combat. But why? This clearly looked like some kind of match between the Sorceress’s forces and the Order. As she scanned the battlefield, a familiar whoop tickled her ear and Quistis focused hard to identify each fighting knight below. It took her less than a second to find the knight she was looking for, flanked as he was by his two best friends. 

 

“Sir Loire!” Quistis shouted, half in relief and half in alarm, as Sir Loire planted his weapon decisively in the ground and put his hand to his head. What was he doing? At his sides, Sir Seagill and Sir Zabac were warding off witch-creatures that were trying to converge on them. From her aerial vantage point, Quistis saw that a larger group of knights was coming to assist but whether they’d make it in time was very chancy. Quistis pulled urgently on Raijin’s mane. “Raijin! Set me down! My knight-master’s in trouble?”

 

“Huh? Who?”

 

“The man who trained me! He’s in trouble! I need to help!”

 

“Why? He’s your senior, right? He should know what he’s doing. And Seifer needs us.”

 

“I can help two people at the same time!” Quistis shouted, temper igniting under her scalp. A thousand memories of saving Sir Loire by the skin of their teeth flashed through her mind, surging through her veins with the certainty that without her, Sir Loire would die. Seifer might only _probably_ be dead. “Raijin, just put me down!”

 

“Fine, fine. I’ll come back around for you,” said Raijin, starting to glow again. Quistis braced, not sure what she expected; was Raijin going to lightning-bolt to the ground? A second later the world turned white and Quistis found herself stumbling on hard earth that was just a bit closer than she’d anticipated, like missing a step and having to lunge for the next one. On her sides were Sir Seagill and Sir Zabac, the latter nearly dropping his harpoon in shock, and Sir Loire yelled from behind her. 

 

“Quistis! Where the hell—!” Sir Loire did a double-take, nearly making Quistis look behind her before he blurted out, “And what are you wearing?! That’s not the armor you left in—”

 

“Laguna!” Sir Seagull snapped, darting out to snap the leg tendons of a beast that was getting too close. “Focus!”

 

“Oh! Right!” Then Sir Loire went silent. Qusitis felt the dry-static crackle and hot metallic tang of serious magic being worked behind her, but did not dare to look. Uncoiling her whip, she struck hard and wide to blind two creatures that were rushing for them, and as they howled, Sir Zabac hurled his heavy harpoon and speared one through the head. Quistis looked away from the warped de-transformation, already searching for other targets. She had the sense that whatever Sir Loire was doing was powerful, so all she needed to do was keep the beasts away from him a little longer…

 

Not very much longer. A soundless explosion at her back nearly knocked Quistis to her knees, and instinct made her twist around to see what hit her as she fell. She expected some kind of packaged spell, maybe even a magic grenade; she did _not_ expect the massive three-headed dog that literally burst from the air right over Sir Loire’s heart, swelling in size as it leapt through the air to become large enough to blot out the sun. When it landed, the force of its impact popped Quistis back into the air hard enough for her to get her feet underneath her again, though Sir Seagull and Sir Zabac fell over. And so did Sir Loire, who collapsed immediately on the ground. 

 

“Keep his body safe until Cerberus de-forms,” Sir Seagull shouted to Quistis as he rolled onto his feet. It took him a little while even though he wasn’t wearing full plate; a second later, he was helping haul Sir Zabac to his feet. That left Quistis alone to see to Sir Loire’s defense, and like she’d done once during a bandit ambush that had knocked Sir Loire out cold, she planted her feet either side of his head and used the awesome range and flexibility of her weapon to guard completely around them. She tried not to gape at the massive three-headed dog as it barreled through packs of witch-creatures on its way to attack a gleaming golden artifice, joining forces with two other eldritch forms. The golden automaton struck at them with magic and miniature version of itself, but fell under the combined assault in less than fifteen seconds. Sir Loire’s three-headed dog shook a ripped-off piece of the golden creature before puffing into dark smoke, and Sir Loire made a choking noise that immediately made Quistis step back. He sat up rubbing his head and laughing a little shakily. 

 

“Whoo! What a rush! Man, it’s weird only have two eyes now…”

 

“Sir Loire, what’s going on?” Quistis demanded as Sir Loire got to his feet and pulled his sword from the earth. She hoped it was his interaction with magic that was making him pale and clammy with sweat. His eyes were over-bright eyes that seemed suspicious. Fortunately the larger force Quistis had noticed had arrived now and were drawing the creatures away from Sir Loire and his friends while they were recovering. 

 

“The final battle, is what!” He flung a bit of dirt off his sword in a reckless manner and looked at her, his brows knitting with confusion. “But why are you here? You’re a squire… Squires aren’t supposed to know.”

 

“Know what? And why not?”

 

“Uhhh…” Sir Loire folded his arms, his brow furrowing. “Well… I guess it’s okay to tell you. You’re here already, and you’re basically a knight too! Just a matter of paperwork and what. Alright, so the Holy Order of Eden was founded to get rid of Ultimecia, who lives in that castle there.”

 

 _Ultimecia._ Of course the overdramatic black-winged sorceress with her showy red gown and stupid hair would have an equally ridiculous name… And the power to make it seem not so ridiculous after all. 

 

“We’ve been trying to kill her for over a hundred years, but we never had the power to do it. She’s so effing strong that even our Lady Edea can’t take her down!”

 

 _“That’s the good sorceress who works with the Order,”_ Quistis recognized distantly.

 

“Things started to change about ten years ago I found a girl named Ellone who turned out to be a sorceress too, and just last month I found another girl, RInoa, who’s also a sorceress!” Laguna grinned and tapped his head, saying, “I’m not a mage, but I got a way with magic. It’s like the faeries lead me to people who’ve got magical potential, or something.”

 

“Is that why you took me on as your squire?” Quistis asked, thunderstruck. 

 

“One reason, yeah.”

 

She reeled. “But I’m not a sorceress!”

 

“Yeah, but you could have been.” Sir Loire laughed a little apologetically. “Sorry. I knew you didn’t know about your potential, but I didn’t tell you about it either because you’d wreck yourself trying to wake it up on your own. And in case it never developed, I didn’t want to get your hopes up. All I could do was keep an eye on you and put you in supervised situations where it might wake your stuff up.”

 

So many mysteries about her training suddenly fell into place. Sir Loire’s apparent foolhardiness and amazing luck at survival weren’t accidents at all; they were secret training attempts. He wasn’t as much of an idiot as Quistis had thought either, just sly in a way that she never even would have considered. The fact that he even  encouraged her use a whip, a weapon more associated with Beast Tamers and mages rather than forcing her to use a sword made sense too. 

 

“Anyway, three was the magic number,” said Sir Loire, gesturing at the battlefield with his sword. “Rinoa to pull the castle down and hold it, thanks to those trees growing through the chains. Ellone to dismiss the barrier over the castle so we can actually get inside. And Lady Edea and a rotating team of ‘different’ knights like me to bring Guardian Forces onto this plane to vanquish Ultimecia’s creatures, though we didn’t think she had this many!”

 

“Sir Loire… Those creatures…”

 

Sir Loire’s face tightened into somber lines. “We know. In the hundreds of years we’ve tried killing her, nobody’s ever come back. Now we know why.”

 

Quistis nodded, feeling cold and rather awful. If things had gone as expected two and a half months ago, she would be fighting here too, a true member of the Order she had always longed to be part of. Yet though she was here now, she didn’t want to be. There were so many knights coming to kill Ultimecia, but nobody even knew about Seifer as anything but a silver dragon. 

 

“Sir Loire, has anyone seen a silver dragon with ruby horns and wing webs on the battlefield? He’s a transformed knight too, but he’s different. He’s conscious. And Ultimecia dragged him here to serve her.”

 

Laguna’s brows shot up. “Really! Damn! That’s quite a tale… But no, haven’t seen him. Not since yesterday, anyway, when he went into the castle and didn’t come out. Truth be told, I’m surprised he hasn’t come at us yet. But then again, he might be a ‘last line of defense’ kind of thing once we actually get into the castle.”

 

“You mean no one’s gotten inside yet?”

 

“We can’t,” said Sir Loire, shaking his head. “At least, not for a while longer. Rinoa’s growing those trees as fast as she can, but the castle is pulling up _really_ hard and anybody who tries climbing the chains gets shocked near to death! Until it comes all the way down, there’s nothing we can do. And no way to get to Ultimecia, either.”

 

Several things flashed through Quistis’s mind all at once, like a reverse lightning bolt that came up from the ground to strike one blinding conclusion. 

 

“I have to get in there,” said Quistis, half to herself and half to Sir Loire. 

 

“You and the rest of us, Quistis!” Sir Loire laughed, not unkindly. 

 

“No, I mean, I _can._ And I know how to bring the castle down, too.”

 

“What!”

 

Quistis straightened up, the plan solidifying in her mind. “Sir Loire, I’d like your permiss… No. I am reporting that I am going to go into the castle, bringing it down for the Order, and saving my dragon. As soon as it falls, the Order should charge. Ultimecia isn’t using any of her own strength to keep the castle up and will likely be very powerful still. We’ll need all the help we can get.”

 

Sir Loire boggled. “How are you going to do all that?”

 

“It’s—“

 

“TIME!” boomed Fujin and Raijin from above, making all the knights in the area instantly duck as they both swooped overheard. Quistis pointed up at them, first to highlight their appearance and then to signal everyone not to fire at them.

 

“They’re friends,” she half-shouted to the assembled knights. 

 

“Nice friends!” Exhorted Sir Loire with enthusiasm, while the other knights looked varying degrees of wary or skeptical. “Okay, I see how you’re getting all that done then. Godspeed, Quistis! You do what you have to do.”

 

“Laguna!” Sir Seagill shouted, flushing with shock and temper. “You can’t send her off on a solo mission! She’s a squire!”

 

“Yeah!” Sir Loire shouted back as Quistis started to glow white again. “She’s _my_ squire! Trust me, she can do anything!”

 

A lump rose in Quistis’s throat as she looked at her ‘silly’, noble knight master, but before she could say anything about his sincere praise, he vanished in a blaze of white light that swallowed Quistis’s entire vision. A second later she was back on Raijin’s head, settled once again into his mane. Fujin was very close by now, looking very annoyed with a red tinge starting to color her eyes. 

 

“REPORT.”

 

“Seifer’s inside the castle and hasn’t come out yet,” said Quistis, pointing the castle. Now that she was looking, she could tell it was definitely too high for the knights to reach just yet, and that the trees closest to it were straining badly against the skyward pressure from the floating enchantments. “We need to get inside and not only find him, but destroy Ultimecia’s power. Otherwise there’s no reason why she won’t be able to yank him back or do other weird things to him.”

 

Both Fujin and Raijin grunted. “SENSIBLE.”

 

“If we force her to hold the castle up by herself, then it’s possible that she might lose her grip on Seifer,” said Quistis, making the Far Eastern dragons nod. “And it’ll open up an avenue for the Order to get inside and kill her too. Unless we want to try and engage her.”

 

“Nah,” said Raijin, shaking his head so his mane rippled like sea grass. “Let’s just grab Seifer and run.”

 

“Right,” said Quistis, though a small twist of guilt made her shift in her seat. Even though she wasn’t a full knight and under no onus to be here, it felt wrong to leave the Order to its founding objective while she ran into the battle for purely selfish reasons and then took off. Out of all the Order, Quistis was fairly sure she was the only one who had ever been inside the castle and ever faced Ultimecia in recent history. She needed to be in the battle for information if nothing else.

 

 _“Besides, I don’t want to be the only knight in the Holy Order of Eden who_ ran _from Ultimecia during the final battle.”_

 

That decided her. Once the castle was dropped and Seifer was wrested away from Ultimecia, Quistis would fight the witch with the rest of her brothers and sisters in arms. And when she got her shield, she would rest secure in the knowledge that she had unquestionably earned it not to everyone else’s satisfaction, but her own. 

 

Reinvigorated, Quistis outlined the broad strokes of her plan to Fujin, Raijin, and Quina, mostly because she didn’t know enough about some of the finer details until they were in the castle itself. Normally she would have winced at having such a loose strategy, but Quistis did not feel anything like the intense and detail-obsessed squire she’d been two and a half months ago. Perhaps it was the dragon inside her trying to come out or still lurking in her mind, but she felt in her bones that now was the time for action and the only thing her brain needed to plan out was what was going to happen in the next moment. It felt like a longer version of the clarity Quistis experienced in battle, which made her feel like she could do anything and succeed. It filled and buoyed her as they neared the castle…

 

…and flying creatures suddenly started pouring out of it. 

 

“I’ve got it,” said Raijin before Quistis even had time to be worried, and he began to glow white again. Fujin lifted Quistis from Raijin’s mane and put her next to Quina on her own back, giving Quistis a suddenly blinding view of Raijin turning into the biggest, longest, most solid bolt of lightning she had ever seen before he suddenly flashed ahead and into a thousand spears of incandescent light. The herd of flying creatures, so thick that they looked like a cloud of smoke, thinned dramatically as what looked like half their number fell. Raijin briefly re-formed on the other side, a flash of black and bronze, before bursting into lightning again.

 

“Neat,” Quina commented, far more amazement in his/her voice than the word implied. 

 

“TERRITORY,” said Fujin, starting to become translucent. Quistis glanced at her hands; as she’d suspected, she and Quina were being included in Fujin’s wind magic and starting to turn see-through too. “SPECIAL POWERS.”

 

“But you were in wind form when you came back to the Village,” said Quistis, a little puzzled.

 

“TIRED. HERE, NOT.”

 

And then Quistis could no longer see herself, or even be aware of her own body. It was a very different experience than traveling in elemental form with Raijin, who flashed forward and reformed so quickly that Quistis had no idea what was happening. But with Fujin, there was a strange, painless feeling of disconnection. She couldn’t feel the wind on her skin or through her hair, nor the weight of her whip on her belt, not even the approximate position of her hands and feet. Quistis felt like she was watching something happen through someone else’s eyes, a sensation that might have unnerved her beyond reckoning if things had not been so dire. She tensed when they came near the flock of sorcerous creatures, especially when she saw them to be massive, twisted gargoyle cousins to the monsters down below. They seemed to look right at her, Quina, and Fujin, like their mismatched and unevenly spaced eyes could somehow see them despite their invisible forms…

 

Not that it mattered. A polearm’s length away, the creatures suddenly flew back like they’d been buffeted by hurricane winds, many of them slamming into their fellow fliers. Fujin grunted in disdain as she angled down for the docks Quistis had pointed out earlier, and Raijin’s laughter was a literal roll of thunder as he blasted overhead for a third pass, thinning out the flock of creatures even more. It might have been Quistis’s imagination, but she thought she heard someone female—female, hopefully with silver hair and black wings—screaming in utter fury. Though she couldn’t feel her face make the expression, Quistis knew she was smiling in satisfaction. She liked being part of the worst day of Ultimecia’s soon-to-end life. 

 

Then Fujin shivered and started turning solid with an irritated growl that swelled into an uncomfortably visceral roar that shook every part of Quistis’s re-forming body. Immediately Quistis sensed that Fujin had not turned solid of her own will. She heard a shout from Raijin and looked above to see him turning solid too, seeming oblivious to several creatures that were now eagerly flying at him now that they had something to attack. Fortunately he dropped to avoid their assault and came up next to Fujin, who still had a bit of space.

 

“I think Ultimecia knows we’re here,” he said conversationally.

 

“AFFIRMATIVE,” said Fujin, though her brusque reply was nearly lost under a horrible roar that suddenly blasted forth from the castle. They were very close to it now, close enough for Quistis to really see its nonsensical arrangements of walls and turrets and how its central courtyard was not as empty as it had once been. Her heart plummeted when she saw the massive silver and scarlet form crouching in the center of it, the colors familiar but the body all wrong. A formerly sleek, elegant, semi-serpentine form with feline limbs and a long arching neck was now as squat as a desert lizard, hoary with armored plates that were unblemished by battle and character-building scars. The wings were too short for flight but thick with muscle that could bash an armored knight to death. Desperately Quistis looked at the dragon’s face, desperate for the living blue-green that had enchanted her so long ago, but even so far away Quistis could see that this dragon’s eyes were gold. As gold as Ultimecia’s, who perched on his back and glared vindictively at all of them.

 

At the sight of her, Fujin and Raijin rumbled and immediately shot down with all the power they could pack into explosive uncoilings of their long bodies. They left the gargoyle creatures far behind as they landed in the courtyard, the impact nearly flinging Quistis and Quina from Fujin’s mane. Immediately Quina hunkered down, hiding him/herself. Quistis did the same.

 

“As if Edea’s precious little Order wasn’t enough,” Ultimecia sneered. Peering through locks of Fujin’s mane as they wafted in the winds of her rage, Quistis thought Ultimecia looked ragged, her silver hair tangled and her black wings in heavy disarray. Her formerly imposing beauty was now beastly with hate and scorn as she looked at Fujin and Raijin and said, “Fools. You should have stayed in your cave. You were wise never to darken my doorstep before.”

 

“What did you do to Seifer?” Raijin bellowed, a thunderstorm booming through every word as lightning crackled over his skin. Quistis clenched her jaw,, the dragonness inside her screaming in challenge at the sight of her mutilated mate. Her head was flaring with heat, her skin prickling with the shape of scales, her teeth aching to sink into Ultimecia’s throat. 

 

“I perfected him,” said Ultimecia arrogantly. Gesturing at him, she said, “He was too weak to be of any use before, yet one cannot be so particular in trying times.”

 

“RELEASE HIM,” said Fujin, her voice rolling and roaring like a hurricane was brewing inside her body. “OR ELSE.”

 

“You two think you can kill me?” Ultimecia started laughing, but it was not the low, disdainful noise Quistis remembered from their previous encounter. She instead sounded somewhat hysterical or perhaps more in denial about her situation. “That sanctimonious bitch and her silly toy knights have been trying for nearly two hundred years. _You_ two are merely dragons, and of the type with legendarily few offensive capabilities. What could you possibly do to me?”

 

Quistis’s mind ran through the possibilities and came up with nothing good: Fujin and Raijin versus Ultimecia would end up fighting Seifer instead, and changed as he was, Seifer might not even know who he was facing. One or all dragons could be fatally injured. Jumping out of Fujin’s mane and ignoring Quina’s hiss of warning, Quistis put herself between Fujin and Raijin and made herself look as calm and nonthreatening as possible as Ultimecia immediately focused on her. She was not sure if she should be pleased or worried when Ultimecia’s eyes and wings flared in outrage.

 

“You! This is all your fault.” Before Quistis could ask what Ultimecia meant, the black-winged sorceress started ranting, her hands clenching as invisible winds of sorcery yanked at her disordered feathers. “You broke my enchantment somehow… You unraveled my power! And then Edea and her little successors broke into the fissure you made to make _all this_ happen to me!”

 

 _“Or maybe you’ve been overconfident in your floating castle,”_ thought Quistis, equally torn between scorn and incredulous laughter. _“You locked yourself away and concerned yourself with only_ your _desires, and I bet once you set your defenses, you never bothered to check or update any of them. This battle and its poor outcome for you are_ your _fault and no one else’s.”_

 

But Quistis kept all of that to herself. There was no need to drive a wounded animal even further into a corner, not when there was someone vulnerable who needed to be rescued still. 

 

“Controlling Seifer must take some power too,” said Quistis evenly, trying to sound as reasonable as possible. “Release him to us. We will leave immediately. You won’t have to worry about fighting us on top of the Order and you can use your strength for you instead of on a dragon who doesn’t want to obey you.”

 

“And why do you think he doesn’t want to obey me?” Ultimecia gripped one of Seifer’s horns in a mocking impression of a caress. “He cried out to become a dragon in every part of his heart and soul. He wanted to forget that he was _not. ”_

 

Quistis clenched her jaw so hard that she heard something in her skull pop. It distracted her from the pain lancing through her chest, guilt combined with a sudden deep conviction that all of this was all her fault.

 

“I heard his desires,” said Ultimecia, marring Seifer’s horn with a possessive scratch of her long claws. “I _made_ him into what he wanted to be. Now he is nothing but dragon.”

 

“RAGE!” Fujin shrieked, shattering the shock and guilt Quistis would have otherwise felt at Ultimecia’s unintended accusations. 

 

“He’s less a dragon now than he’s ever been!” Raijin roared, his eyes now totally red with fury. “You didn’t take his doubts away, you took his mind and memory!”

 

“He is _my_ creature,” hissed Ultimecia, fanning her wings like she could puff Fujin and Raijin away. “And he has no need of those things with me. I gave him what he wanted, and in return, he gives me all he has, for without me he would be nothing. He would be dust. I saved him. I made him! He is mine!”

 

“He was mine first,” said Quistis, the words shaking out of her as an anger as deep and powerful as lava started bubbling up in her core. For hell’s sake, Ultimecia had practically forgotten Seifer had existed! Unconsciously Quistis loosed and lashed her whip, baring her teeth like she still had fangs. Ultimecia laughed, unimpressed. 

 

“He is mine now,” she crowed. “And he takes to his duties quite well. Observe!”

 

Seifer took a deep breath, his sides visibly expanding. Quistis felt a prickle of foreboding even before he completed his first breath, Ultimecia’s brag about ‘perfecting him’ echoing in her mind. 

 

“Take cover!” She yelled, a split-second before Seifer opened his mouth. But instead of flame, there was another of those horrible roars, now viscerally painful so close up. Even as Quistis gritted her teeth and nearly shut her eyes with pain, she was still aware of the air changing and looked up. Gargoyles were falling from the sky like rain, too fast to be anything but aiming for Fujin and Raijin. Fujin and Raijin roared up at them and Quistis yelped as a stray bolt of lightning escaped Raijin’s hide to sting her on the leg. Abruptly Quina was next to her and towing her off to the arched passages at the side of the castle’s courtyard, muttering something like, “Cover good, cover good,” under his/her breath.

 

“Quina, we can’t leave them—”

 

“Ambush, ambush, ambush,” clucked Quina, pointing at Ultimecia with his/her fork. Ultimecia was laughing like a madwoman now, totally focused on the gargoyles now swarming Fujin and Raijin like rats. Both dragons were roaring now, a mixture of rage and pain as the gargoyles started slashing at them with fangs and claws, wrenching up their overlapping scales with far too much ease. Seifer looked at them, his body in a waiting crouch but his face utterly blank. Quistis’s heart hollowed. Had Ultimecia taken his mind in truth? Was there anything of Seifer left to save? If there wasn’t…

 

_“…then I can at least avenge him. One way or another, Ultimecia dies.”_

 

Raijin and Fujin snapped themselves like whips, flinging gargoyles everywhere; Quina and Quistis dodged several hurtling creatures scrabbling for direction and narrowly missing their heads or limbs. Attacking Ultimecia became a second priority as Quistis slashed several beasts who decided that she made a better target than two furious dragons, and peripherally Quistis was aware of Quina skillfully stabbing gargoyles to death with precise thrusts of his/her combat fork, puncturing the beasts’ brains through their eyes or ears. The loss of the gargoyles went unnoticed as more of them fell from the sky to bury Fujin and Raijin and the two dragons soon disappeared under writhing masses of bloodthirsty and misshapen minions. And worst of all, Seifer took another deep breath, this time holding it and flaring his lips back over his clenched fangs. Quistis saw the air around his muzzle shimmer with heat.

 

“Move!” She cried, but not loud enough. A column of blue-hot flame twice as thick as anything Seifer had spat before barreled from his mouth like the wrath of heaven, and any hope Quistis had that the gargoyles might take the brunt of the blast was dashed as the horrid things fled, exposing Raijin to the full force of the flames. There was no time for him to move. The flames engulfed the middle of Raijin’s serpentine body and the mighty bronze dragon _screamed,_ whipping in convulsions of agony as his hide immediately burned, bubbled, and hissed. Quistis nearly vomited when a loud, wet-sounding pop somewhere on Raijin’s burned stomach released a gout of steam and the smell of scorched bile.

 

Fujin shrilled in fury, the sound blasting several gargoyles off her head. She tore free of her captors in a bleeding fury of claws and pure rage, but rather than flying for Seifer or running to Raijin, she immediately started throwing gargoyles at Seifer’s head. Seifer dodged, forced to shut his mouth and stop the killing flames. Quina cut down two gargoyles to dash over to Raijin, already yanking potions from his/her bandolier. Quistis faltered for a second—would it be better to help Quina? No, what could she do? The best thing would be to kill Ultimecia, which would hopefully free Seifer and if not… 

 

Seifer roared flame again, making Fujin corkscrew out of the way both to avoid his attack and the rallying swarm of creatures coming after her. Quistis kept running around the edge of the courtyard, her lungs burning as she sprinted for what she hoped would be Seifer and Ultimecia’s blind spot. If she could get up his back somehow and break the woman’s neck from behind, things would fall into place. Maybe her gargoyles would lose their will or shapes too. As Quistis finally broke cover from underneath the arched passages, Seifer’s hide flashed in terrible mirror-brilliance before he sprang forward and tackled Fujin like a dog going for a snake. And Ultimecia sprang straight up in the air, too far for Quistis to strike and hovering above even with her tattered wings. Quistis gritted her teeth against a scream and instead looked around for something to use. Using her whip as a sling, even a rock could be a deadly projectile in Quistis’s hands, but there wasn’t anything the right size or shape to hurl up at the hovering sorceress. Maddeningly Ultimecia didn’t notice Quistis at all, her attention flitting from the battling dragons to the coming knights beyond. It would have been the perfect time to strike, except—!

 

A shriek that seemed to break the air into shards of flying glass made Quistis clap her hands over her ears. She turned and saw Fujin lashing around Seifer like a pale blue rope, her head clamped between his jaws. Her short claws cut gunnels through Seifer’s mirrorlike armor but drew no blood, meaning the scarlet arcs on the floor and the blood running from Seifer’s teeth were all hers. Raijin was trying to get up, physical and emotional agony suffusing his face as he shakily tried to stand with gargoyles trying to rip him apart and instead being driven back by  Quina, who was exhaling great clouds of noxious smoke that was making the gargoyles spin away gagging, vomiting, and in extreme cases, even turning to stone. Raw envy made Quistis want to scream. If she’d known about her blue magic abilities earlier, maybe she could be using them like Quina now. And if she had just remained as a dragon, then she could actually _do_ something! 

 

Frustrated fury crowded her temples, blazed into her eyes, turned her vision as golden-bright as the flames she’d once commanded in a different shape, when rage and rampage had been forces living in her at all times. It wasn’t until the gargoyles swarming Raijin began to burst into flames that Quistis realized she wasn’t just imagining setting them on fire with her eyes, she was somehow actually doing it. Best of all, Ultimecia noticed. Quistis looked up to see the sorceress staring down at her in shock and then sharply winging away, her sudden flight extinguishing the lick of flame growing up her robe. Quistis immediately glared at the sorceress, concentrating her full attention on the black-winged woman as she attempted to flee. Peripherally she was aware of Seifer releasing Fujin’s head and turning to look at her, his empty golden eyes showing no recognition as he focused on her. 

 

“Kill her!” Ultimecia screamed at Seifer, whirling to avoid Quistis’s killing gaze. “Kill her now!”

 

Quistis nearly looked at Seifer then, a surge of desperate hope making her practically see the bright blue-green return to his eyes. Instead she felt the ground shaking as Seifer started coming for her, the thundering of his new weight a threat that she couldn’t long ignore. Quistis shut her eyes hard, willing the fury to dissipate, and then dared to look at Seifer. He was running at her now, his now-stubby wings half-spread, the marks of Fujin’s struggles marring and cracking his armor. He did not look a single thing like the proud and beautiful creature that Quistis had first seen so long ago. And in a way, it was easier that he didn’t. Immediately Quistis’s mind, roiling with draconian adrenaline and clear with human focus, instantly realized what needed to happen as the alien dragon drew close and leapt, jaws and claws gleaming with deadly intention. 

 

Quistis swung her whip, feeling her entire being pour into the motion. It was both exhilarating and entirely natural that her arm stretched along with it, scales of near-sable and saffron sprouting from her transforming anatomy to armor her in something better than adamantine. She hit the not-Seifer dragon in the corner of his jaw, slamming him to the floor so hard that his head bounced on the flagstones, several of his ruby horns shattering into shards as long as human-Quistis’s arm. As their general’s head hit the ground, the gargoyles abruptly faltered, some of them even falling out of the air with the sudden lack of leadership. Raijin limped over to Fujin, who was panting and weeping tears and blood and writhing in a tight ball of pure misery. Her right eye was a pulpy ruin from not-Seifer’s bite. Quina ran over too, administering potions from a bandolier that seemed far too light. 

 

“Quistis,” Raijin called, his voice weak but strong with conflicting emotions. “We—“

 

“Go!” She shouted as not-Seifer struggled to his feet, his ungainly arrangement of limbs preventing anything more graceful than a roll. 

 

Raijin bowed his head. At once he began to turn to pure white lightning, his glow encompassing both Fujin and Quina. Quina started throwing things at Quistis. 

 

“Open!” Quina commanded, and Quistis immediately opened her mouth. The glass bottles shattering against her teeth felt like biting through dry burned rice, the shards meaningless to her tough tongue and palate. Energy suddenly swelled through Quistis like she’d been having the best rest of her life for the past month, and as the gargoyles began to recover, she glared at them and felt her killing gaze come over her again, expanding and swelling to hit the enemies six at a time. There were far fewer of them now, just enough that Quistis thought she might be able to destroy them all by herself if not for not-Seifer and Ultimecia. 

 

She raised her wings to take off for Ultimecia and instead had to dodge Seifer as he lunged for her arm, his jaws closing on air with a clack that rocked the air. Lithe and light, Quistis leapt over him and pounced on his armored back, slamming him into the ground once more. Before he could recover, Quistis jumped straight up in the air like Seifer had once done, her eyes on Ultimecia and her wings already pumping for explosive flight. 

 

But before she was even one length in the air, a terrible pain shocked up her spine and brought her crashing to earth. Quistis craned her head around to see her tail in Seifer’s teeth, and she screamed as he ground down like he wanted to bite the last fourth of it off. The feeling of his fangs digging directly into her spinal cord, even so far at the end of her tail, nearly made Quistis faint. Instead she concentrated hard on the fact that she been born without a tail because she was not a dragon, and abruptly Quistis found herself lying on the ground as a human, some distance away from Seifer and in the approximate pose she’d been holding in dragon form. The horrid pain was an afterthought, a weak phantom pain for a limb that no longer existed. Seifer’s teeth snapped together with an audible click and even controlled, he seemed confused by his vanishing target. Quistis immediately looked up at Ultimecia, who seemed both stunned and… Strangely calculating. In fact, the longer she looked at Quistis, the less alarmed she seemed.

 

“So, you’ve come into your powers,” said Ultimecia, cocking her head with narrowed, considering eyes. “And you’re strong enough to command a shape that you never would have attained on your own. Interesting…”

 

Quistis did not like the way Ultimecia smiled then, her painted lips drawing back to reveal teeth that seemed sharp in a way that even dragon fangs weren’t. A chill went through the part of Quistis that kept her alive with fear. 

 

“Well, girl. You may be of use to me yet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> O_O


	11. Dragonhearted

**“Bring her to me.”**  
****

There was still a part of Seifer that was able to resist, even after nearly burning Raijin to death and feeling Fujin’s eye squelch between his fangs. Seeing Quistis again, glorious as a human and magnificent as a dragon, pushed against the heavy haze of despair that had been wearing him down ever since the day before, when he had oh so foolishly listened to a little voice inside his head that whispered, “A real dragon cannot have a human soul. Cast it away.” So Seifer dug in with every bit of strength he could muster, drawing on reserves he’d already drained to try and stop from wounding his friends, and he focused so hard on resisting Ultimecia’s command that he didn’t even spare the energy to scream inside his head when his body instead lurched forward, jaws and claws extended for small and vulnerable human Quistis. 

 

She glanced over her shoulder at him and for no reason he could tell, began to sprint for him. Then she dropped and slid onto her back, which confused him even more until Quistis suddenly changed, and instead of pouncing on a small human woman Seifer instead found himself hurtling through the air from a powerful kick to the stomach by an angry sunset-colored dragon. His reformed wings flapped, but had not been shaped for quick flight; Ultimecia had dragged most of his form into heavy scales, and while Seifer managed to turn somewhat, he still ended up smashing into the ground on his side. Meanwhile Quistis flipped onto her feet, spat several jets of her burning sunshine fire at Ultimecia, and immediately took off after her. 

 

After all the effort Ultimecia had put in to not fight anyone—her castle, her creatures, what she had made Seifer do—he expected that Ultimecia would flee. Instead she started throwing purple-white arrows of light at Quistis, ones that followed her even as Quistis dodged. Ultimecia had her back to him now and Seifer tried to breathe a jet of blue fire to burn the bitch with her own flames, but he couldn’t even open his mouth. Bitterness that he’d nearly drowned in before his friends had shown up now surged again, making him want to curl up and die with self-loathing. 

 

_“I loved being a dragon because I had power and nobody could tell me what to do. But none of it was ever mine. A hundred years I deluded myself, and now I’ve nearly killed Fujin and Raijin and I can’t even stop myself from hurting my hoard. I was never a dragon. Never.”_

 

At least Fujin and Raijin had fled. Quistis was flying hard, but the light arrows had her mark and were speeding up, coming nearer even as she twisted, turned, and spun through the air like a spindle to dive with fearsome speed. To think she’d been airsick such a short time ago! Seifer ached toward her, his heart torn between pride that he’d shown her how to fly and deep, visceral envy that a shape she’d never wanted was now truly hers to command.

 

The arrows finally caught her. Quistis jerked as the points sank into her body and crackled out like electric spiderwebs, but she didn’t scream or falter. With a discipline she must have mastered as a human squire, she literally flew through her pain and arrowed for Ultimecia, who threw more magic at her. Instead of fleeing, Quistis dipped her wing to veer away from the magic instead, the power missing her by what looked like mere hairs and then flying harmlessly off into the distance. Ultimecia stiffened as Quistis surged up to her, her jaws opening wide—

 

—and then rammed into an invisible ball that surrounded Ultimecia like a crystal globe. Quistis did not snap her jaw in half but it looked close, and this pain was so bad that Quistis actually sagged and dropped in the air before a reflexive snap of her wings brought her back up again.

 

“Fool!” Ultimecia shrieked, though to Seifer she sounded hysterically relieved instead of masterful. “Did you truly think I would be without defenses?”

 

Quistis spat blood from her mouth and circled Ultimecia in a tilting orbit that made the sorceress have to turn to keep looking at her. “I thought they’d be more impressive,” taunted Quistis, her voice strong despite the pain she had to be feeling in her jaws. “It seems to me you’re stretched a little thin, Ultimecia. And your forces are shrinking every moment. You should take what power you can muster and run while you can, because if I don’t destroy you, the Order will.”

 

Seifer felt his stubby wings flap once, twice, three times before he achieved lift. He took to the air like a drunken boar but picked up speed with every second, impossibly managing to be stealthy despite his bulk. Quistis was distracted by Ultimecia, however, and did not notice him approaching from below. Ultimecia saw him, but did not look at him. She instead kept her distracted by putting on the kind of show that heroic types could never resist. 

 

“The Order!” Ultimecia sneered. “The so-called Holy Order of Edea’s Men! Her beloved cult of lost children, all worshipping the mother she pretends to be! She sends them to their deaths and yet **I** am the one slated for destruction?”

 

“You kidnap girls,” Quistis reminded her coldly, seeing nothing except her target. Seifer wanted to scream a warning but his new body was wholly the witch’s and cared nothing for someone he had once yearned for with everything he’d had. “You drain them for power.”

 

“Only the ordinary ones,” sniffed Ultimecia. “The ones destined for breeding meaningless lumps of doughy children, who have nothing to recommend them except their health. They are so utterly replaceable that even their own families never come to look for them.”

 

“You make it impossible for anyone of normal means to even try!” Quistis laughed with scorn of her own to match Ultimecia’s. “How does it feel to be so frightened of ‘ordinary people’ that you never let yourself interact with them?”

 

“A lapidary does not bother with dirt,” said Ultimecia, gesturing like she was going to throw a spell again. Quistis tensed, her focus sharpening to the movement.

 

Meanwhile Seifer was barely two body lengths away and he saw his stubby claws coming up, dragging through the air in a way that would have immediately irritated him in his proper shape. Quistis was coming to the highest part of her orbit now, still completely ignorant to her danger, and with a lurch like he was throwing himself up a mountain, Seifer tackled Quistis right under her wing. He felt something give and a concussive pop go through Quistis’s wing socket: she faltered and then started falling, one of her wings flapping slowly and awkwardly. Seifer caught a flash of her pained expression as she plummeted by him.

 

He tried to reach for her to catch her but instead chased her down, unable even to wince when Quistis hit the courtyard hard enough to shake a rain of cobblestones loose. The gargoyles that still remained were circling a respectable distance away from her and it occurred to Seifer then that it was strange they hadn’t swarmed her like they’d done Fujin and Raijin. A creeping dread threaded into his heart, making Seifer ill with what the reasons for that might be. By the time Seifer landed, Quistis was still struggling to stand, her slender limbs shaking with the effort. One of her wings drooped noticeably lower than the other. Seifer had no idea if he’d broken it or merely dislocated it, but it was clear that she wasn’t going to be flying any time soon. And to make matters worse, he jumped on her back and pressed his full weight into her wounded shoulder, his truest self cringing as Quistis gasped in pain and collapsed. At first Seifer thought she was shaking but when he saw her wings starting to shrink, he realized Quistis was taking human form again. But it didn’t seem to be voluntary. It happened in spurts that would have been painful if they hadn’t been self-directed, and instead of one body part warping at a time as had been the case for his transformation, Quistis instead shrank and changed evenly all over. 

 

“Keep hold of her, boy,” said Ultimecia as she came down from the sky, coming down in circles like a hawk in reverse. When she landed, the gargoyles drew in closer, their triple eyes of ruby red glinting with slavish focus. Seifer had seen her pull these particular creatures from the bones in the hall he’d walked with Quistis, and if they’d once been human, there was nothing of that in them now. It made him want to retch even as he swore he’d never become so mindless, but what choice did he really have? Even Ultimecia’s command of ‘keep hold of her’ had him shifting his grip ever so slightly so that when Quistis became fully human, she was still more crushed under his claws than he ever would have done of his own will. 

 

Ultimecia gestured and Seifer stepped back; at the same time, Quistis rose into the air like something was pulling her up by her head. She struggled, but there was nothing she could find purchase against, and when she lashed at Ultimecia with her whip, it once again bounced off her invisible barrier. Ultimecia narrowed her eyes and the weapon tore itself from Quistis’s hand, spinning away only to have Seifer lunge at it and snatch it in his jaws. A huff of proto-blue fire melted the links to slag  that dripped from his fangs and pooled in sullen red drops on the ground. Quistis tightened her jaw but turned instead to Ultimecia, who was studying her with cold interest. 

 

“I would ask how you refined your powers so much in so short a time, but truthfully I don’t care,” said Ultimecia, touching her clawed hand to Quistis’s cheek. “The matter remains that you came at an opportune time, even if your power is immature.”

 

“I won’t fight for you,” said Quistis, eyes blazing with cold fury of her own. “And I’ll never tell you anything about the Order.”

 

“Foolish girl, you know nothing of the Order that I do not. Have I not been their so-called prey for over a hundred years? No. I am famished from all this…” Ultimecia gestured vaguely, her eyes glinting. “And it’s become clear to me that while I can destroy Edea’s puppets, it’s best to go for the master. Since she’s surrounded herself with successors, it would be terribly unfair if I went against her with just my own strength.”

 

Quistis went still. Ultimecia smiled, her purple-painted lips drawing back like a wolf’s over her teeth. 

 

“Ah, you know of what I speak. Remain still, then, and this process will be quick for you. Unfortunately, it will be very painful. But it is a necessary part of the process, you see.”

 

“Are you sure you’re not merely incompetent?” Quistis asked archly, which would have made Seifer bark with laughter if he’d been able. As Ultimecia’s brows shot up in shock, Quistis added, “Maybe that’s why you’ve hidden yourself away, out of shame.”

 

Ultimecia frowned at her. Then without any warning she twisted her hand and Quistis jerked as lightning crackled over and through her. Seifer screamed in his head, the only thing he could do in his traitorously changed body. He couldn’t even look away as the lightning went on for far too long, leaving only when Ultimecia twisted her hand again. Quistis twitched and shuddered uncontrollably, still hanging in the air like a terrible marionette. Seifer's hope that she might concentrate hard enough to return to dragon shape vanished like smoke. 

 

“Your kind always chooses to be difficult,” Ultimecia sniffed. “I might respect the spirit were it independent, but you are contrary only because of your service to another. Don’t you ever tire of being someone else’s sword-servant?”

 

“Someone better than you already made that point,” Quistis gritted out, lifting her head. “He was wrong too. No one decides who I am but me.”

 

“So you say and so you think, but life is not so forgiving or flexible.” Ultimecia lashed her with power again, this time forcing a thin wail of pain to hiss from Quistis’s clenched teeth. Seifer strained against the invisible bonds holding him still and obedient, but he couldn’t even take an independent breath. He wanted to rage and weep instead of stare as the most beautiful thing in his life slowly died before his eyes. 

 

“For example, I have the ability to manipulate time,” said Ultimecia, talking like she was chatting with Quistis over tea. “It is not as useful an ability as one might hope. I can stop a moment. I can even turn it back a little. But I cannot prevent it from moving on, nor can I change anything I have seen. And worse still, I cannot see into the future. That gift was given to Edea, who keeps all those secrets and steers our fates to her own means. All I ever wanted was the power to make my own choices, _but she will not let me have it.”_

 

She let Quistis go, making the blonde woman sag against the bonds of invisible power. She looked bloodless and drawn, even worse than she’d ever been while airsick. Yet amazingly she took a shuddering breath and managed to speak again.

 

“I see… So… You’re not scared, you’re spoiled.”

 

“Oh, you want to die, don’t you?” Ultimecia hit her with lightning again, making Quistis jerk and spasm like something was trying to break her neck. “No wonder the dragon found you so interesting. He was much like you, you know. I remember his arrogance, his attempts at wit. On a whim I wanted to see how he’d behave in a shape that matched his spirit, and do you know what he did? He attacked me. Not because he was angry about the change, but because he was glad for it. He thought he had power, you see, which was what he was attempting to take by being so… Mouthy. You understand, don’t you? Of course you do. Pathetic minds think alike.”

 

When Ultimecia pulled the lightning back this time, Quistis was weeping. Silently, wide-eyed, looking hollow of anything except the memory of pain. Seifer’s heart cracked at his utter uselessness and the cold triumph on Ultimecia’s face. If Quistis died, he would go with her. Better that than this. What was the point of having an immortal body and infinite strength if he was forever imprisoned by it? Better to spite the witch by taking away one of her toys if she planned on destroying what was most beautiful and precious to him.

 

“You will have your wish very soon,” mused Ultimecia, coming closer and picking up Quistis’s face in both hands. “Normally I would spend days to make absolutely sure that you wanted to die, but time is of the essence. Surrender your strength, girl. Just go. There’s nothing for you here. Your allies have fled. Your dragon loves me. And your Order will be torn to millions of glittering shreds with nothing you nor they have ever done making any sort of mark on the world… Precede them to oblivion, girl. It will be your home for ete—”

 

Ultimecia froze mid-sentence as a look of intense pain suddenly cracked her expression. Seifer felt something in his chest lurch, just like it had when Ultimecia had first dragged him here. Something big was happening, but what? 

 

Then Ultimecia screamed, clawing at her head as feathers started falling in fistfuls from her once-magnificent wings. Quistis fell and hit the ground like a dropped toy, and Seifer suddenly felt his body again, not merely lived aware of it. He leaned forward, but nothing happened. Fuck! Still… He could feel again. That had to mean something, right? He told himself to hope even with the sinking feeling in his stomach…

 

…that… Kept on going. It took Seifer a very long moment to realize they actually falling.

 

_“The castle… It’s not floating anymore. That’s why she’s screaming, they broke her enchantment and it hurts. But who could have done it?”_

 

Ultimecia dropped to the ground, staggering on her feet like she hadn’t used them in years. Gasping for breath, she looked like she was on the verge of falling apart; her wings looked scalded and torn, malformed without their plumage, and her hair was falling in limp gray waves around her drawn face. Several of her gargoyles fell to dust where they stood, fragments of broken bone hinting at their tragic origins. The rest of them stood still, staring at Ultimecia with their beady ruby eyes, waiting for instructions… Or maybe more weakness. Seifer ached to leap on her and crush her in his jaws, but still couldn’t move as she staggered towards Quistis, hissing with fury and greed. 

 

“Accursed wench, I’ll have your _heart_ —“

 

A glint of something golden came arcing through the air, catching the afternoon light like a lost star before dropping and breaking on Quistis’s armored chest. Honey-colored liquid that glowed with potent magic spread out and soaked into Quistis’s body, seeping through the adamantine scales and staining a faint golden patch on her chest. The color came back to Quistis’s skin a hair before alertness returned to her eyes, and Quistis threw herself to the side as Ultimecia shrieked and literally fell on her, clawed hands striking sparks on the flagstones. Quistis swung at her, teeth bared and eyes ablaze with the rampaging spirit that lived inside her skin. Seifer’s throat locked against shouting; her bare hands would do nothing to Ultimecia! But Quistis swung for the sorceress anyway, something gleaming in her hand as she aimed it at Ultimecia's unprotected back, the spot between where her wings emerged. And what gleamed in Quistis's hand was a familiar red. 

 

A broken-off sliver of Seifer’s horn, as long as Quistis’s forearm and as slender as a dagger, crunched into Ultimecia’s back and kept going. Quistis gripped with both hands and shoved her full weight into the horn-blade, eyes for nothing except the disappearing length of the surprise weapon into Ultimecia’s back and chest. The sorceress stiffened like she was the one being struck by lightning now, her furious expression turning at once to shock. More of the gargoyles fell to dust, clearing enough of a path for Seifer to see Quina stabbing his/her way through. Fujin and Raijin were not with him/her, or so Seifer thought until Seifer saw a pair of frogs peeking out from underneath Quina’s hood, one of them bronze and the other sky blue. The frogs appeared to be cuddling, both looking very tired and the blue one in particular shutting its one whole eye very tightly. Seifer was almost stunned but didn’t have time to lose in staring. Something very, very weird was happening. Something was he was sure was happening only to him. 

 

The world seemed to fall away, rushing away from his sight as the ground surged closer. There were two loud cracks in his back like he’d popped his arms back into place, except there was no familiar weight there anymore. The base of his spine ached, nearly reaching a point where would Seifer would have yelled if he hadn’t been overwhelmed by the pain in his head; it was shrinking, condensing, the pain reaching through his skull to shiver down his neck and the rest of his bones like it was filling them up with tangible agony. But his heart kept beating, feeling like how fire looked in his chest, burning off the worst of the agony until it faded to a memory, like a stubbed toe or grit in the eye. Seifer stared at the ground, which was too damn close and framed between five-fingered hands with no claws. When he licked his lips, they were flat, not pointed, and his teeth were blunt like a deer’s. Oh no.

 

But he curled his hands into fists and they responded. He pushed himself up to two feet, nearly falling over backwards at the strange configuration of his limbs, and he moved. And when he turned and looked at Quistis as she released the horn-dagger and looked at him, he actually smiled back a little at the floored look on her face.

 

“Hey,” he said. The sound of his voice almost made him wince. It was so damn high and strangely nasal. But it didn’t hurt his throat and when Seifer coughed and tried again, a much more reassuring and normal tone came out. “You… You alright?”

 

“I’m fine,” said Quistis, staring at him like she’d never seen anything quite like him before. In fact, her eyes were very bright, her cheeks rather red, and her mouth wasn’t quite closed. “What about you?”

 

“I’m… Free,” he said, not sure what else to say. He didn’t know how to feel about what had just happened to him, not after… Not after everything. Not right now, anyway. “How’d you know the horn would work?”

 

“She kept touching you,” said Quistis, gesturing at more shards of splintered horn that were lying on the ground. “So I thought maybe her creatures could get past her barrier, and…”

 

“Smart.”

 

“Lucky.” She bit her lip, her eyes shadowing somewhat. “Um…”

 

“Stupids make kissy face later!” Quina screeched as s/he ran between him and Quistis, nearly making Seifer jump out of his newly human skin. Quite abruptly Seifer realized that the gargoyles were still very much present and that unfortunately, whatever was animating them was still active enough to keep them upright. Quina had cut a path through to him and Quistis but that path was gone now and the gargoyles were closing in, the biggest and meanest-looking ones that Seifer had seen. Immediately he closed ranks with Quistis and Quina, his hand automatically going to his hip as his human body managed to retain some kind of memory. He came up holding a one-sided sword of black steel and a gleaming silver edge. It was good not to be unarmed, but the odds were still really bad. If only he’d stayed a dragon a little longer!

 

Quina took a deep breath and then belched the loudest, nastiest-sounding burp Seifer had ever heard. Worse even, s/he barfed up huge oily-looking bubbles that swelled to human size and popped over all of them. Seifer yelled in disgust, his skin crawling under his armor. 

 

“What the hell—“ he bellowed and then yelled again as his feet left the ground. A second later he was glad they had: the falling castle finally made contact with the ground and BOOMED, the sound of its massive bulk impacting the earth creating a physical wave that blasted the breath from Seifer’s chest and almost popped his ears. Many of the gargoyles fell over, limbs in grotesque ways they didn’t seem to feel. Ultimecia’s corpse lifted into the air before crashing back down, still apparently lifeless. Yet Seifer tensed when he saw her far hand twitching with intention and the assembled gargoyles straightened up, now focusing on Seifer’s group.

 

“Mighty Guard last a short time only, okay,” said Quina, brandishing his/her fork. “Saw Order when Fujin and Raijin free ladies from magic sucker inside. They close. So hold on.”

 

 _“Ladies? Magic sucker?”_ Seifer abruptly recalled the crypt below with its glass coffins and captive women. So shattering that was what had given Ultimecia such a hideous headache and dropped the castle. Damn. He’d thought Fujin, Raijin, and Quina had just fled to save their own lives. He wouldn’t have blamed them, but his chest nevertheless swelled with love and gratitude while his stomach flopped with guilt. He never wanted them to find out that he’d thought so little of them. 

 

The gargoyles came in a rush, leaving no time for more thought. Seifer swung his sword with on instinct, scoring every time with an ease like he was using his own claws and fangs. Beside him, Quina was stabbing everything that came in range and Quistis was cutting down enemies two and three at a time with her killing gaze. On a whim Seifer roared what remained of his draconian spirit at the gargoyles. To his surprise, a ball of fire erupted from the point of his sword, the exact same color he’d used to spit as a dragon before Ultimecia had dragged him back. Hope and a manic joy made him laugh then and start fighting with renewed zeal, his teeth bared in a savage grin. Being human would take some getting used to, but at least he was still dangerous. And the blood surging through his limbs, the immediacy of the action, even the pain from taking hits from time to time, felt so much more intense and alive than anything he could ever remember feeling in dragon shape. 

 

Motion at his side well above the usual crush made Seifer look up and he saw a gargoyle starting to fly away with Ultimecia clasped to its chest. Oh hell no. Recklessly Seifer ran, jumped off the top of the nearest gargoyle’s head, and managed to snag the end of Ultimecia’s robe before she was too far to reach. The weight immediately unbalanced the gargoyle and it sagged enough for Seifer to get his feet on the ground. Seifer pulled down as hard as he could, dragging Ultimecia and the gargoyle back toward earth; a slight distance away, he was unaware of Quistis and Quina both staring open-mouthed at his inhuman strength. Instead Seifer was nearly red-eyed with fury and a small, tiny core of fear that if Ultimecia got away, he would never be safe again…

 

The flying gargoyle abruptly dropped Ultimecia on him, making Seifer fall over with the unexpected weight. As he fell onto his back and pushed her corpse off him, Seifer suddenly realized that he’d let go of his sword to haul her back down. Her blank eyes stared into his as he sat up to look for his weapon, but he swore there was a glint of malicious amusement there as he realized that now he was on the ground and off his feet… And literally surrounded by gargoyles. He couldn’t see Quistis or Quina at all. 

 

“Shit!” Seifer threw his armored hands over his head as the mass of gargoyles lunged for him, all slavering jaws and furious stone claws. There were so many that at least they got in each other’s way, but he didn’t dare lift his head or move lest he expose something, and hammering impacts on his chest and back and legs kept him from focusing on anything but trying to make himself as small a target as possible. He heard Quistis and Quina crying out from somewhere beyond the scrum but couldn’t shout back. Stupid, stupid, stupid! He’d never thought he could rampage as a human and now he was going to die because of it! His pride, more draconian than he’d imagined, raged at once.

 

 _“Like hell I’m going to die like this, in front of her, without even a word! I’m not letting her last memory of me be some goddamn stupid, careless, idiotic rush that won’t even_ look good!”

 

He tried to stand, but the battering from the gargoyles was too much. He tried to throw fire, but pain and pressure made it impossible to concentrate. Seifer gasped when something landed on his back, pinning him to the ground, and then something else landed on top of that. And then another. And another. His armor creaked and then buckled. Seifer choked as his ribs began to strain and then pop. No. No, no, no—

 

Air-cracking booms and the roars of eldritch creatures made the gargoyles take to the air, and at once Seifer could scratch the barest breath as the pressure abruptly left him. Lifting his head, he saw what looked like hundreds of armored figures pouring in from the edges of the castle courtyard, now broken into three massive pieces that tilted at crazy angles. And then Quistis was at his side, her hands spidering over his armor before she began jamming the blade of a long knife (where had that come from? Maybe one of her tall boots) into certain places and cutting things she obviously had experience with. Every time she cut something, the dented armor crushing Seifer’s back and sides eased a little more until Quistis finally ripped off the entire back plate and threw it aside. Glorious air rushed into Seifer’s lungs and he choked when he tried to breathe too fast. 

 

Quistis could have scolded him for that foolishness. Instead she sighed in shaky relief and picked him up off the ground, bracing him with confidence and strength. They left the other half of his broken armor on the ground. It could be replaced, unlike dragonscale.

 

“Did you try to fly?” She asked with a little half-smile. 

 

“Not on purpose,” he admitted, though that sent a little pang through his chest. He’d never fly again, would he? “Where’s my sword?”

 

“Here, dummy-dumb,” said Quina, handing him his blade.

 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever…” Seifer looked around, amazed despite his near-death experience. Knights were efficiently mopping up every gargoyle, aided by massive magical creatures that would flash into existence to destroy gargoyles in the air or particularly tough-looking specimens. He looked down at the ground. Ultimecia was still nearby, lying on her back with her head turned slightly to the side, the point of his horn piercing through her chest clearly visible. Damn. Quistis had driven the thing all the way through. Yet how had Ultimecia kept enough power to still direct the gargoyles? As he was puzzling over that, he heard Quistis gasp softly.

 

“Oh, Ultimecia, ” said a low female voice, and Seifer looked up to see a group of fancy-ish people in front of him. The word ‘retinue’ popped to mind, especially as he automatically noted that the black-clad woman in the center had to be the boss by the way everyone arranged themselves around her. Her hair was hidden underneath a jeweled cap, her makeup intimidating but relatively restrained. And she had wings, big glittery ones that shifted between gold and silver and looked like a gauzy split cape. Fuck, she was another sorceress. Seifer tensed, but rather than pay attention to him, she knelt down by Ultimecia and studied her face. After a moment, she sighed and laid her hand on Ultimecia’s cheek. 

 

“I did try,” said the sorceress sadly. “I know you still don’t believe me. But you don’t have to anymore, one way or another. Go.”

 

A moment of nothing. Then Ultimecia dissolved into black smoke that the sorceress then fanned into the wind with her wings, which turned out to be moth-shaped and covered in complex whorls and designs that nearly hypnotized in motion. The new sorceress looked sad as the smoke drifted away, but more calm. 

 

“Edea, what did you do?” Asked one of the people in the retinue, a young woman with brown hair and wings of her own, discreet ones that looked like a gull’s. 

 

“Ultimecia hoarded power. I returned it to the world, where it should be.” Edea shook her head and said, “No one sorceress is meant to hold so much alone. It is the path to madness, and against divine will besides.”

 

“So we’re going to see a lot more sorceresses then?” Asked another young lady in the retinue, dark-haired and wearing a shade of blue that made her fluffy white wings look like clouds. 

 

“It’s possible. More likely there will be a burst of new talents in the world, or the strengthening of old ones.” Edea now turned her attention to Seifer and his group, her eyes first going to Quistis… And then immediately returning to him. The calm left her face at once, making her eyes go so wide that he could see the clear gold of her irises all the way around. Her shock did not go unnoticed by the others. Three knights that made up the back of the retinue stepped forward, the men in the group looking at Edea in worry.

 

“Lady Edea, what’s wrong?” Asked a one-eyed lady knight in the center, using her focus for Seifer. “Who is he?”

 

“He’s…” Edea covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes actually welling up with tears. And for some reason, that tickled the back of Seifer’s brain. It scratched the back of his ear too, like something he could just barely hear…

 

_“I forbid it! The castle is too dangerous. At least wait a year before...”_

 

Now Quistis looked at Edea and then Seifer and then back again, her own eyes going large. Her mouth made a tiny round ‘oh’ of surprise, but Seifer didn’t ask her why. Especially when one of the male knights, a very dark-skinned man with claw marks up his face and the most lifelike metal arm Seifer had ever seen, looked at Seifer’s tabard very closely. 

 

“Wait a minute, that’s the sign of the Diamond Heart.”

 

“What?” Asked the other male knight, whose armor was burnished to a dark purple. He had a huge spear and a fantastically shaped helm that Seifer automatically liked because it was dragon-shaped. 

 

“The Order before the Order of Eden. The one we were created to replace when they all died.” The dark-skinned man boggled. “Boy, how are you over a hundred years old?”

 

“I was a dragon,” said Seifer absently, still staring at the sorceress. There was something familiar about her. Something about her eyes, the shape of them. And when she walked forward, the way her long black gown swished seemed even more familiar yet. Seifer shook his head like there was a bee around his ear, but it didn’t help the weirdness go away. Still, it wasn’t a painful weirdness, nor a frightening one. It felt… Annoying, actually. Like something he should just know. He let go of Quistis and stepped forward like he was in a dream; Edea quickened her step to meet him. She stared up at him with such hope and tenderness in her eyes, and Seifer got the weirdest sensation that he had seen this exact expression before. But back then there had been weight on his shoulders and around his neck like something had been draped around him. 

 

“Do you remember me?” Edea whispered, her voice cracking. She didn’t sound anything like a powerful sorceress now, especially not when she took a shaking, sobbing breath, and whispered, “Do you remember me, Seifer?”

 

It clicked. Just the sound of his name in her voice made Seifer hiss like he was suddenly seeing an old, dark room in the right light. For a moment he completely forgot about the last one hundred years as a dragon as he stared down at the woman he’d once thought of as his mother. 

 

“I remember, Matron.” He swallowed, his eyes suddenly hurting. Wetness spilled down his face and his heart was hurting. Fuck, he was human through and through now. Oh well. As Seifer lifted his arms, Edea immediately threw hers around his chest and started sobbing, making him laugh in breathless joy as he remembered how to hug back. She smelled like the sea and sunshine and a bit like the fireplace where she’d used to read him stories as a young boy. He’d always been her favorite for some silly reason. “I’m home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter until the end!


	12. The Dragonhearted Fly On

The dragon had been spotted swooping over the rocky pastures to the south, but hadn't done any damage beyond rattling a few nerves. After triangulating the locals’ reports to find a likely area for the dragon’s cave, Quistis popped into her own dragon shape and took to the air to see if she could spot the beast. Seifer sat in her clasped claws to serve as a second pair of eyes. With the hunt for his own cave still fresh in his mind, it didn’t take Seifer long to spot a likely hillock and point it out to Quistis.

 

“Why there?” She asked as she spilled air and headed for the hillock anyway.

 

“A stream comes out around the south of those hills, which means there’s probably a spring inside them,” Seifer shouted back, secure in his cave of claws. Now that he didn’t have wings of his own, he could see why flying might absolutely terrify someone. Might. He was fine, he would have enjoyed the weightlessness and the wind rushing through his clothes even without Quistis holding onto him. Nevertheless his guts did swoop up into his throat as Quistis started dropping more sharply, and Seifer distracted himself by saying, “The kinds of trees up there don’t sprout in deep dirt either, which means they’re sitting on earth on top of a rock. A really big rock, judging by how many trees there are. Plus, that flat area right there would be perfect for landing and takeoff.”

 

“It looks very small,” said Quistis doubtfully as they neared the little clearing in front of the likely cave. 

 

“So?”

 

“I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a dragon so small before.”

 

“I have,” said Seifer as they landed, which was all he managed to get out before the sudden rush of air sweeping away from them stole his words. As Quistis set him down, Seifer looked around for the dragon and straightened his mail, which was adamantine and a going-away/welcome back present from Matron. She’d been sad when he’d left so soon, but understanding enough to tell him to come back with lots of stories, which Seifer fully intended to do. According to Quistis, most of the knights came back to the Order to spend the winter behind its walls, and Seifer was no fonder of the cold and wet as a human than he’d been as a dragon. Fortunately today was warm and dry, a perfect summer day in Seifer’s opinion. His heart swelled with a glad purposefulness he never remembered feeling before when he looked at Quistis, his fellow knight and in his heart, still his hoard. She looked magnificent as a full knight, gleaming with fulfillment and an excitement about the future that practically shone off her and made her uniquely beautiful. When she looked at him, Seifer nearly sighed in admiration. Just like the urge to rampage, Seifer’s hoard-longing hadn’t faded in his human shape. 

 

“Anything I should know about small dragons?”

 

“They’re very quick,” said Seifer, remembering when a trio of opportunists had tried to pry Fujin and Raijin out of their cave. Between their speed and the Far Eastern dragons’ bulks, it had been a closer fight than Seifer had cared to recall, though ultimately Fujin and Raijin had been victorious. “And they’ve got a complex about their size, so it’s good you turned back human.”

 

Quistis nodded and turned her gaze towards the hill where they thought the cave might be. Somewhat anticlimactically, there was nothing there. But the longer they stood there, the more Seifer became aware of a low hissing that instantly set his teeth on edge. It was like someone was gargling gravel and he looked down at the ground, realizing he wasn’t hearing the sound so much as feeling it. On a whim he started jumping up and down, earning a strange look from Quistis. 

 

“Hey! Get out here where we can see you!” He shouted, making Quistis gape at him. Seifer knelt down and started banging the pommel of his sword on the ground, shouting, “Unless you’re scared or something!”

 

“I’m not scared!” Boomed a dragon voice from below, which might have been impressive if not for the petulant tone. And the fact that the dragon sounded like a teenager. Seifer grinned when he heard the words anyway, because while he’d been able to understand Fujin and Raijin since returning to human shape, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to understand dragons at large. Rising to his feet, he smirked at Quistis, who rolled her eyes but shook her head with a little laugh too. 

 

The ground nevertheless thrummed with multiple heavy footsteps, leading away from Seifer and Quistis and nearing the edge of the hillock they’d thought might have a cave. A second later a dragon came up out of the ground with a hiss and a flashing of claws, which was again rather underwhelming since instead of bursting from a cave, it popped up out of a hole like a gopher and instead of dazzling with swordlike teeth and razor claws, its pointy bits barely twinkled in the afternoon sun. It was a _very_ small dragon, probably only twice the size of a chocobo. Definitely not big enough to carry a human or anything heavier than a dog. And moreover, it was the most obnoxiously bright yellow color Seifer had ever seen, so incongruous with its surroundings that Seifer immediately burst out laughing. 

 

“Stop it!” The little dragon shouted, scrambling out of the hole and flaring his wings. Aside from his size and hilarious color, he was a fairly typical Western Dragon; a short triangular head, a thick neck, a compact lupine frame, and thickly muscled wings. His horns were black and glossy, twisted into a design that would be impressive on a larger head. Alas, he was not very large at all. And that made everything he did seem so _cute,_ even when he charged at Seifer with a shriek of outrage. 

 

Fortunately, Quistis was not distracted. She took a deep breath and then glared _,_ searing the ground in front of the little yellow dragon with a beam of white-hot light that shot straight from her eyes. The little dragon stopped so hard that his back end crashed into his front, resulting in him tumbling tail over tip several times before he could stop. Seifer would have laughed except Quistis gave him a not-so-friendly bop upside the head and he managed to shutter his snickers. But oh goodness, what a silly-looking thing this little dragon was! Not so much a dragon as a much-overgrown bantam rooster, really. 

 

“Please excuse my friend, here,” said Quistis as the little dragon untangled itself and eyed her warily. “He’s… Rude. Sometimes.”

 

“Sometimes?” Seifer repeated, amused: the little dragon said the same, much less amused. 

 

“In any case, we’re not here to fight,” said Quistis to the little dragon, who looked at her dubiously. “My name is Quistis and he’s Seifer. What’s your name?”

 

“Zell. And knights always come to fight,” he said, bating on his claws. “Are you not knights?”

 

“We’re special knights,” said Seifer, which made Zell frown. “We’re actually here because we have an offer for you.”

 

“What kind of offer?” Asked Zell, cocking his head. His eyes were just as green as his scales were yellow, but fortunately not nearly as ridiculous as the rest of him. Inside that tiny frame was some kind of intelligence. 

 

“Do you like your cave?” Quistis asked, which made Zell look at her. “It’s really close to humans. And it looks like it might flood in a hard rain.”

 

“It is,” sighed Zell. “And it does. But all the other caves are already claimed by the big dragons.”

 

 _“I bet they could just step on you,”_ thought Seifer, again suppressing a snicker. At his old size, he could have smushed the little dragon into the ground very easily. 

 

“Would you be willing to move to a better cave?” Quistis asked, making Zell first perk up and then look at her suspiciously. “It’s by the sea. It’s dry, spacious enough for you and a hoard, and no knights or dragons will ever bother you.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because the Holy Order of Eden protects the town and by extension, would protect you from other knights, adventurers, and any unwelcome dragons.” Quistis put her hand over her heart, her voice the definition of truthful. “That’s the Order we belong to. And we can both swear nothing bad would happen to you.”

 

“But why?” Pressed Zell. “It sounds too good to be true.”

 

“That’s because it is,” said Seifer, ignoring Quistis’s look of annoyance. Folding his arms, Seifer said, “The cave’s by a human town, close enough and big enough you can smell their cooking fires if the wind blows the right way—and since it’s by the sea, the wind’s always blowing. And the reason we’d want you to move in is to keep an eye on the town from the air, so you’d be looking for pirates and sea serpents and what.”

 

“So I’d get a better cave, but I’d have to guard humans for it?” Zell asked, and when Quistis and Seifer nodded, the little dragon scowled. “Doesn’t sound very nice to me. Humans are mean.”

 

“Have you met every human in existence?” Quistis asked in the cajoling tones she used on small children.

 

“Nooo,” Zell said slowly, exactly like a small child.

 

“Then you know _some_ humans are mean, but not necessarily all,” said Quistis, and took out one of the prepared presents. They had tested it on Fujin and Raijin before the pair had gone back home and dragonform-Quistis agreed it was delicious too, so the current thought was that this particular food would appeal to dragons a great deal. Zell tensed up as Quistis set the paper-wrapped bread on the ground, but immediately leaned closer when she pulled the paper back to reveal a lovely round golden loaf as big as her shield, dusted with flavored crumbs on top and exuding a complex savory aroma that made Seifer’s stomach growl. He and Quistis had eaten smaller versions of that same loaf before, so Seifer knew it was quite tasty. 

 

“What _is_ that?” Zell breathed, creeping closer. 

 

“It’s called a curry bread,” said Quistis, taking another step back to give the little dragon even more room. “If you decide to accept our offer, the town will make sure they will give you a loaf at least this big every week, and other treats too. Wine, for example.”

 

“I’ve never had wine,” said Zell wistfully, still looking at the bread. At his size, it would be a decent appetizer. “Is it nice?”

 

“You wanna try some?” Seifer reached under the shield on his back to pull out his own contribution to the dragon-taming, a very large glass bottle of fiery stuff that was tempered with a certain quantity of fresh fruit. In the afternoon light, it sparkled like a golden gem when Seifer put the wine down next to the curry bread and backed away again. Now Zell looked terribly tempted, but still wavered about a body length away from the offerings. 

 

“It might be a trap,” said the little dragon, half to himself and half to them. “Maybe you’re trying to drug me and take me to hunters that want to skin me.”

 

“Nobody’s going to skin you,” said Seifer, knowing exactly what that wariness felt like. He managed not to point out that only a blind human would want dragon leather that was the color of a sick chocobo, because skin was still skin and best when left attached. 

 

“We swear on our shields and our personal honor that nothing bad will happen to you if you eat these things,” said Quistis, gesturing at the bread and wine.

 

Just then the day suddenly turned dark, making everyone look up. A much larger dragon was winging down towards them, making Zell hiss and flare his wings despite the fact that the new dragon outweighed him by at least a ton. This was also a Western dragon, but instead of Zell’s chicken-yellow color, this one was a deep indigo blue that shaded to grey steel on the stomach. She was so large that when she looked down her nose at the curry bread and wine, her head blotted out the sun.

 

“What is this?” She drawled, making Seifer sneer at her haughty tone. “Who treats with this insignificant thing instead of I, Tiamat?”

 

“Go away, Tiamat!” Zell shouted, impressing Seifer with his immediate response. “This isn’t your territory!”

 

“Like you can hold it? Little fool.” And she immediately reached out to step on Zell just like Seifer had thought he would have once done, except Tiamat didn’t just rest her claws like Seifer would have. She actually stepped like she wanted to squash him, leaving a huge buckling in the dirt that Zell fortunately was not occupying: he darted out from between her claws like a little gold minnow and actually clambered up her forearm to bite her hard in the inner elbow. Tiamat pulled him off and tossed him over her shoulder, which normally would have made Seifer laugh except for the look in Tiamat’s eyes. It was proud without reason and scornful beyond measure. It reminded him of Ultimecia. Seifer bristled. 

 

As Zell went flying like a flicked bean, Tiamat looked again at the curry bread and wine, poorly hiding her interest by tilting her head back to mask the dilation of her pupils. She ‘grumbled’, “A paltry offering as such things go, but enough to buy you safe passage if that is what you desire.”

 

“We don’t need your assurances for safe passage,” said Quistis calmly, looking up at the larger dragon. “And with all due respect, we were talking to Zell.”

 

Tiamat glared at Quistis. “You rude thing, how dare you? This is my land. That jaundiced little thing is a parasite. You would properly address all offerings to _me.”_

 

“Except these aren’t for you, they’re for Zell,” said Seifer, making Tiamat hiss at him. “Don’t you hiss at me, it’s your own fault for butting in.”

 

Tiamat inhaled, her sides swelling with more than temper and smoke venting from her muzzle. Quistis lunged into dragon shape and tackled Tiamat in the chest, knocking her down before she had a chance to properly flame. As twin jets of aborted fires burst from her nostrils, Tiamat scrambled back and found herself facing a dragon very nearly the same size she was. Her wings flared with shock and outrage. 

 

“Ugh!” She exclaimed, backing up a few more paces. “What’s wrong with your neck? And your wings?”

 

“They work just fine,” said Quistis, swishing her long tail. Against her sunset-colored scales, her eyes seemed piercingly blue and exceptionally unfriendly, and despite the fact that she looked decidedly odd next to a real Western dragon, she nevertheless thrummed with a coiled deadliness that was undeniable in its polished perfection. 

 

Tiamat looked her up and down, not liking what she saw in the least. Then without warning, she belched fire at Quistis, a huge conical swell of bright gold and amber that instantly dried the air in the whole clearing. Quistis ducked out of the way, needing only to move her head atop her serpentine neck instead of jump to the side like a typical dragon would have, and immediately spat her sunfire beam back at Tiamat. Despite her size, Tiamat dodged nimbly enough and then sprang at Quistis with a roar, who immediately took to the air. At once, Quistis’s larger wings gave her the advantage as she surged into the air like a fired cannonball, while Tiamat labored to get airborne and then only slowly worked up speed. Seifer shaded his eyes to watch the dragonesses disappear into the sun, presumably to fight, before looking around for Zell. In the kerfuffle, the little yellow dragon had returned to the clearing, visibly worse for wear with several deep scratches in his sides and bruised wings, but he didn’t seem to notice his injuries. Rather, he was staring up at the sky with pupils so dilated that they nearly turned his eyes black, and his mouth was even agape in shock.

 

“She turns into a _dragon?”_ Zell’s voice practically cracked with astonishment. 

 

“What, did you think every human could shoot fire from their eyes?”

 

“Shut up,” said Zell absently, still staring up at the sky with eyes now glowing with admiration. “Wow. She’s…”

 

“Watch it, shorty,” warned Seifer, even though he knew Zell was no threat. “She’s mine.”

 

“She’s _amazing,”_ sighed Zell, which made Seifer smirk. And then laugh in the next second as Zell added, “So what’s she doing with you?”

 

“Never you mind,” said Seifer, amused by Zell’s sudden impudence. “But let’s talk business while the ladies are having their chat. I stand by what I said before: it’s not a perfect deal by a long shot. But it’s still pretty damn good, so if I were in your shoes, I’d take it.”

 

 _“I actually wouldn’t, but he doesn’t have to know that,”_ thought Seifer as Zell’s brow furrowed in thought. Then again, Seifer had been a proper size in his dragon shape. If he had been as tiny as Zell, maybe he would have had to compromise too. 

 

And like the little yellow thing had smelled Seifer’s thoughts, Zell immediately objected. “But I’m a _dragon!_ I’m supposed to fight my own battles and have my own territory and—“

 

“Look,” said Seifer, trying to emulate the patient tones Fujin and Raijin had often used on him. “Being a dragon isn’t just about being the biggest, baddest thing around. It’s being the biggest and baddest thing to _yourself._ The best dragons don’t need anything from anyone because they know exactly what they need instead of what everyone _says_ they need, you know?”

 

Zell cocked his head, frowning. “Huh?”

 

Damn it, what else had Fujin said? “False pride.”

 

“What?”

 

“False pride will get you killed,” said Seifer, remembering more of the lecture—well, the many lectures. There hadn’t been much to do except discuss dragon hood with Fujin and Raijin when the days had been dark, cold, and rainy with the sea raging in steely towers outside. “You’re going to be a target for hunters because of your color and your shine. You can’t meet every problem facefirst or you’re gonna get your head cut off.”

 

“I know all that!” Zell lashed his tail irritably, his ultra-green eyes heating up from within. “That’s why I’m trying to find my own place! Somewhere I’m secure! My own territory!”

 

“Right, which is why you should at least look at the one we’re offering,” said Seifer. Zell scowled, but didn’t look quite as opposed as he had before. Seifer added, “It’s three days of flying from here. Far enough from Tiamat that she won’t bother you or try to take your land, and we’re serious about the Order helping you keep your claim.”

 

Zell bated on his claws. “I don’t want to live off charity, though… I’m a dragon, not a pet.”

 

“And we’re not asking you to be a pet, we’re asking you to be a guardian,” said Seifer, which made Zell stop shifting so uncomfortably. “Humans are weak, short-lived, and fragile. If you protect them, they’ll owe you.”

 

“Curry bread and wine and things?”

 

“Yeah, pretty much. And the cave’s pretty good. It’s got its own source of water, there’s multiple chambers, and it’s got a flat ceiling instead of those stone icicles on top. No scratching up your head or wings.”

 

“Stalactites,” Zell corrected absently, though his pupils were dilating slowly with interest. “If it’s so nice, why hasn’t anybody else claimed it?”

 

“Because up until now, no dragon’s been allowed to settle there.” Seifer decided to flatter the little dragon a bit. “You’re the very first one we approached with this offer. And if you’re worried that making a deal makes you less of a dragon, that’s stupid. Dragons make deals all the time to get stuff for their hoards.”

 

“But that’s different!” Zell huffed. “That’s for a hoard! You’re just a human, you’d never understand.”

 

Seifer nearly smirked. Instead of confusing the hell out of Zell, however, he said, “I understand better than you think. Didn’t you just see Quistis turn into a dragon? I know about hoards, trust me. And all the trouble you can get into because of ‘em.”

 

“I guess you’ve got a point, but if I go to look, my territory won’t be here when I get back.”

 

It was time to bring out the sword pommel of truth and be blunt as hell. “First of all, Tiamat’s going to squish you for this land sooner or later, because if you think she’ll wait long enough for you to put up a real fight, you’re wrong. Second of all, if you go look, I guarantee you’ll want that territory for your own. The cliff’s high and sheer enough that no one without wings could get up there, and the height and the sea nearby means there’s always a strong current to fly on.”

 

“You seem to know a lot about what dragons like, for a knight,” said Zell, cocking his head. “Is it because of Quistis?”

 

Now Seifer’s smirk escaped, though his information didn’t. “That’s a really long story. Look, just come by and visit the cave. If you don’t like it, fly away and find another place to settle.”

 

Zell bated on his claws, swinging his head a little from side to side with uncertainty. Seifer waited, keeping one ear cocked for the sounds of draconian battle above and hearing nothing, which he hoped was good news. Eventually Zell looked at Seifer, uncertainty darkening his eyes to emerald green.

 

“Why me?” He asked softly. “I’m… Tiny. Wouldn’t a bigger dragon be better? Even someone who’s not a dragon all the time, like Quistis… She’d be better, wouldn’t she?”

 

The expected size-complex was finally rearing its head. “A bigger dragon would eat more,” said Seifer immediately. “A bigger dragon would also terrify the friendly humans into fainting. Can you flame and fly at the same time?”

 

“Yeah, but…”

 

“So you're strong enough for the job. You’re also young, you haven’t settled in anywhere, and just the fact that you’re sitting and talking with me means you can be trusted to listen and negotiate,” said Seifer, which made Zell bate again. “And believe me, that’s rare in dragons. You’re the right combination of traits we need.”

 

“What if I say no?”

 

“Then we keep looking.”

 

“You’re not going to kill me?” Zell asked pointedly, with a bit more bitterness than Seifer had expected to be in him. “To make sure there’s one less dragon in the world or something?”

 

“If you’re not causing problems, why should we take the effort?” Seifer consciously chose not to speak of chivalry and honor, mostly because people who didn’t believe in it always responded to cynical practicality better. It seemed Zell was that kind of person, because he was quiet for a while before nodding just once, decisively but suddenly. Seifer chuckled as with tiny steps Zell crept forward, sniffed the curry bread, and then picked it up in his claws.

 

“I could eat this every week?” He asked, sniffing the bread more.

 

“Yeah, if you want.”

 

Zell licked his lips, the little point of his tongue darting like a pink fish around his muzzle. Very quickly, just like a lizard, he took a bite and immediately drew back, chewing thoughtfully. At once, his pupils dilated to near-circles and a visible shiver of delight rattled down his body, making him look like sunlight made solid as the sun glimmered off his scales. 

 

It suddenly became dark again, but more gold-tinted than before, and when Seifer looked up he already knew he would see Quistis winging back toward them, the sun shining brightly through her wing-webs, shrinking by the meter until she landed on the ground as a human again. She was getting very adept at her transformations, not that anyone but Seifer would notice: after all, he had seen her entire struggle. And though Zell was around, he was so deep in his delight over the bread that the rest of the world might as well have ceased to exist. That made Seifer wonder, could a dragon hoard food? Zell’s singleminded focus certainly seemed to indicate one could.

 

 _“He ain’t gonna be tiny for much longer if he keeps eating like that,”_ thought Seifer as Zell took another bite of bread and visibly struggled between wolfing more down or savoring it as long as possible. 

 

“Where’s Tiamat?” Seifer asked as soon as Quistis straightened. 

 

“Running back home,” said Quistis with mixed satisfaction and amusement. “Once she realized I could outfly and outflame her, she yelled a challenge for me to come to her home turf and fight there. I told her I’d give her a head start. I don’t think she’ll realize I’m not following her for a few hours yet.” Quistis looked at Zell then and like Seifer, did not mention his damage. Instead she smiled and said, “How’s the bread?”

 

“Iff VUMVAVULL.” Zell chewed hard, swallowed, and immediately took another bite out of the loaf. “Iff FFO GOOD!”

 

“So did Seifer explain everything about our offer?” Quistis asked, looking from Zell to Seifer and back again. “How you’d make a daily sweep of the area and let the guard know if you saw pirate ships and—”

 

“I figured we’d get him to the cave first and then give him the details,” said Seifer, which made Quistis frown at him. 

 

“What if he likes the cave and not the details?” She asked him in a low voice as Zell took another enthusiastic bite.

 

Seifer made a little sharp gesture at his throat that made Quistis scowl, but the fact of the matter was that any dragon that moved into that particular cave would have to behave or else. Fortunately, Zell seemed both young enough and friendly enough that he’d be comfortable changing and creating new ways to interact with humans. 

 

/\

 

Just as Seifer had predicted, Zell went into near paroxysms of delight when he saw the cave, even though the walls were covered in lichen and the floor was crunchy with salt-encrusted pebbles. Several denizens of the town below nearly went into paroxysms of fright upon seeing Zell for the first time, but they were in the minority thanks to a pair of enchanted gauntlets that Matron had made for Zell’s speech could be understood by all humans, not just ones that were blue mages or had once been dragons themselves. Once Zell found out he could be understood, he would not shut up and gradually the good people of Balamb relaxed around him. Sure, he was still a scaly fire-breathing beast, but he seemed to be a nice boy too; Zell said ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, promised to help with everything from pirate watch to tracking down lost children, and thanked old Ma Dincht so effusively over her curry bread that within an hour, everyone was quite charmed. And so Quistis and Seifer left him in the company of the knights while he happily chatted with anyone who wanted to listen to him and went to the Order’s chapter house for some much-deserved rest. 

 

“So what’s next on our list?” Seifer asked, stretching out on his claimed bed. Silently he luxuriated in the soft mattress, the clean linen sheets, and the fact that he wouldn’t have to move for the foreseeable future. While the chapter house was small, there were still two beds available in the travelers’ room used for knights and allies passing through. Curtains between each bed could be pulled for privacy, but neither Quistis nor Seifer saw any point in formal separation after all they’d been through. On the bed next to his, Quistis stretched her arms over her head; her shoulders always got sore after more than a half-day of flying. 

 

“Nothing, really,” said Quistis, suppressing a yawn. “We were supposed to have the rest of the year to find a dragon willing to watch Balamb, but Zell seems like he’ll work out.”

 

“Heh. Yeah. As long as he likes fish.”

 

“I think he’ll enjoy whatever Ma Dincht makes,” said Quistis, and the two of them chuckled at the memory of Zell sitting outside the old widow’s house, his head resting on her windowsill like a begging dog, greedily inhaling all the wonderful smells coming out of her kitchen. In that moment, Seifer’s idle thought about food being a dragon’s hoard became a certainty.

 

“So we’ve really got nothing to do?” Seifer eyed Quistis speculatively, but she was leaning down to unlace her boots. She had taken off her adamantine hauberk and was now just in an walnut-stained tunic and trews, the easiest thing to wash and wear for a knight on the road. Despite her lack of armor, she did not look vulnerable; rather, Seifer could now see the definition of her neck and shoulders and the way the fabric pulled over her strong arms. The physical pull he’d felt toward her when they’d first been the same species together surged now, but Seifer kept it to himself. Things were good now. There was no need to make them all heavy and strange, no matter how pleasantly warm the idea made him.

 

“No, nothing officially. I suppose we could head back to the Order—“

 

“Hell no! I’m not ready to be mewed up in stone just yet.”

 

“Weren’t you looking forward to a cave of your own?”

 

“A cave that I didn’t have to share with other people,” Seifer grumbled, scowling at the memory of the Order’s dormitories. He had spent exactly two weeks there before the itch to be out in the world had become absolutely unbearable, mostly because humans were _so_ _freaking loud_ and carved stone echoed in a way that natural rock didn’t. That and the fact that his ‘fellow knights’ kept staring at him, not sure what to make of his dragon past or his Ultimecia connection or the fact that he was technically five times older than most of them, at least. Seifer had nearly been on the verge of asking Matron to turn him back into a dragon when she’d suggested that he go out adventuring instead, and here he was. He had to admit it was not inferior, especially because he got to be with Quistis all the time. If observing her as a dragon had been fun, working alongside her was exhilarating. Even if she could be bossy at times and still adhered to rules Seifer found silly.

 

“Do you miss it?”

 

There was only one ‘it’ Quistis could be referring to. Seifer looked up at the ceiling, sorting through his thoughts on the subject. He had been fully human for a little over a month now. 

 

“Not as much as I thought,” he said after a long silence. “When I was a dragon, I was always so focused on being the best dragon I could ever be that I never really felt happy about anything. I think a part of me always knew I wasn’t right. And now that I’m a human, it feels better. Like I was always touching the world with gloves on and now they’re gone.”

 

“Poetic.”

 

“Heh. Tell you what, though, I _definitely_ miss having built-in armor. Adamantine’s good and all, but it’s just not the same. And I miss being able to eat raw meat without needing to sharpen a knife first.”

 

Quistis chuckled. “You _do_ enjoy raw meat a lot.”

 

“Only when it’s fresh. Don’t pretend you don’t too.”

 

She hummed in agreement and took down her hair. The first time Seifer saw her do it on purpose, he’d nearly dropped the object he’d been holding because the hypnotic spill of gold seemed to ignite a very draconian part of his spirit: _mine, my hoard, my gold, my treasure._ Again he kept the thought to himself but watched covertly as she took a traveling brush from her bag and started combing her hair out with quick, businesslike strokes that made light ripple prettily through her locks. 

 

“Seifer…”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Since we don’t have anything pressing to do…” 

 

She looked at him through her lashes, biting her lip in an unspeakably appealing way. Seifer sat up, trying not to grin like a fool, and it turned out to be the right choice because her bashful look had nothing to do with him in the least.

 

“Do you mind if we stop by my home village? Normally it’s too far out of the way of any normal circuit, but since I can fly now and I haven’t seen my family in years…”

 

“Oh yeah, sure,” said Seifer, mentally kicking himself. “I bet they’ll be glad to see you too.”

 

“I want to show them my shield,” said Quistis, her eyes falling on the large round buckler that was hanging on the end of her bed, as much for storage as to show that this particular bed was claimed. It was a prettily polished thing of bright steel and enameled designs, with two particular things of note in Seifer’s eyes. The first thing was the draco border he had insisted she install so long ago, an inch-wide band of painted scales that normally indicated a dragon-slayer except instead of the usual red, the scales were blue for trust and her own Qu heritage. The second thing was the personal crest on Quistis’s shield, which showed a red dragon circling a pair of black wings. In all the Order, only Quistis had the crest of slaying Ultimecia on her shield. Seifer didn’t mind in the least. Rather, his heart glowed with pride every time he looked at Quistis’s shield, because of course his hoard would be so incredible. Hadn’t he seen it all along? If starstruck young people left the village in droves because of how inspiring Quistis was, Seifer would not blame them one bit. 

 

“And I’d like to talk to my mother more about my grandfather and what she knows about blue magic too,” said Quistis, making Seifer nod. “Honestly, I don’t know how my life would have been different if I’d known, but I’d like to know now. Maybe something could come in handy later.”

 

“Maybe,” Seifer agreed. “And as long as we’re visiting family, let’s see Fujin and Raijin too.”

 

“Of course,” said Quistis, nodding with a little smile. Seifer laid back down on his bed and laced his hands behind his head, closing his eyes to better see the future in front of them. They had nothing to do except be themselves, nowhere to go except what they wanted, and between their skills, nothing in their right mind would mess with them. All things considered, things were pretty good. And exactly what he had always wanted, come to think of it. A part of him was ever so slightly restless that for the first time in his life there wasn’t something to run for, but what was wrong with being happy, exactly? What was wrong with finally having one’s dream?

 

_“Nothing at all, that’s what. And the best part is that I don’t have to wake up from anything. As far as I can tell, every day is going to be as good as the ones I’ve just had. And that’s not bad at all.”_

 

Sleep came easily and waking up was even easier, though Seifer did not beat Quistis out of bed or to breakfast by any means. By the time he woke up, dressed, and went in search of his hoard and something to eat, Quistis was already in the chapterhouse’s common room with two mugs of hot tea, rice, and the stew version of the curry packed inside Ma Dincht’s bread. She was looking at a map with a light frown and started speaking as soon as Seifer sat next to her.

 

“I hadn’t realized how inaccurate many of the Order’s maps were until I started seeing the land from the air, but I think I know where to go from here. Are you ready to go, Seifer?”

 

He grinned. Was he ready to go? With her? To parts unknown and adventures untold? As Quistis glanced at him and smiled as she saw the answer in his eyes, Seifer spoke anyway just to make things clear, and the happiness in her gaze resonated with the glowing fullness in his chest as he spoke.

 

“Always.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I MANAGED TO FINISH A SHORT-ISH STORY!!! With lots of help from Aurenare, who definitely kept me focused. I would ramble so much otherwise. There were also tons of times I would send her something along the lines of "help me, it feels wrong and I don't know why" and she would give me expert advice and great suggestions. I really enjoyed writing this story not just because it's finally done and I like to write anyway, but because it brought me closer to a friend :)
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who has come along on the journey of DRAGONHEARTED! And especially thank you if you've taken the time to leave a review and let me know just what you liked, even if it's just AHHHHHH! It makes me really happy to know that I'm bringing some joy into this ridiculous world we have to live in and I hope the next adventure I write in this universe will be just as enjoyable.


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